


The MVPs

by Nahboi



Series: MVPs [1]
Category: Original Work, Pikmin (Video Game), Splatoon, Super Mario Bros. (Video Games), Super Smash Brothers
Genre: Attempted Murder, Drinking, F/M, Gen, Kidnapping, Mild Blood, Murder, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-12
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-12 06:01:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 16
Words: 47,868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29380335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nahboi/pseuds/Nahboi
Summary: Nintendo will never be the same again. Behind some iconic Nintendo games, a secret lies. There are those who want to know it, those who DO know it, and those who protect it, dubbed the MultiVerse Protection services... but with every amount of good they do for the universe's protection, there's a larger being behind the scenes who wants nothing but despair. This is the MVPs.
Series: MVPs [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2158248
Kudos: 5





	1. Where The Game Begins

Mario stood in front of green double doors lined up with large, white spikes. He had seen that door too many times. Mario straightened his cap and pulled open the doors. A large gust of wind blew on his face upon opening the door.

Mario sprinted down the large hallway that led to the room he desired to reach.

At the end of the hallway was a large opening. Once Mario entered the opening, a spiked wall slammed shut behind him. Mario was inspecting the wall, but whirled around when he heard a familiar voice yell "HELP!"

Mario looked up and saw a cage, dangling on a chain attached to the ceiling.

Inside of the cage was Princess Peach, the sole reason Mario had gone there anyway.

"Princess! I'll save you-"

Mario jumped just in time to dodge a full-speed fireball headed at him.

"I was REALLY counting on that to hit him." Mumbled a low, rough voice form the other end of the room.

"Bowser! I knew you would be here!"

Bowser quickly removed the palm from his face and stepped forward. "That was a good distraction, but I'm done playing games, Mario. See that grand star up there?"

Mario saw a small sphere with a grand star inside.

"That's gonna power up my invention, which will, powered by the star, turn the mushroom kingdom to ashes!"

Mario gasped, before jumping up there with no apparent regrets.

The chamber broke when Mario's hand hit the glass, and the star fell out. Mario and Bowser quickly gained composure and hopped to grab it. They both hit the ground empty-handed.

Mario looked up from the ground he laid on and saw a hooded person standing in front of him.

The hooded figure wore black, military style pants, with a belt holding four knives, and a much bigger back holster,for, what Mario assumed was, a sword. He also wore a vest, and shaded goggles.

The vest had a pendant with some letters on it.

_MVP? Why does his vest say that?_

The man looked in between the two on the floor. "Huh. This isn't surprising. Two fat men with a grand star... "

Bowser jumped to his feet. "HEY! Who are YOU?!"

"My comrades refer to me as S. I'm here to stop a supernova from swallowing your world and about twenty-five others... Now tell me, where'd this big star come from?"

Bowser fumbled with his fingers and then he said, very quietly, "I- uhh… I found it. Yeah! On the sidewalk, like a lost child-"

S dashed forward and stuck a knife right at Bowser's neck, touching the cold metal just enough to avoid cutting Bowser's neck. "Incorrect. Give me the answer, or I'm giving my boss your head and a gravestone."

Bowser quickly swung his fist into S, knocking him over. Bowser took this time to run.

Mario was gonna run after, but Bowser stopped running and started violently shaking, before falling backward. Another hooded person shoved their taser back onto their hip.

"Don't run. It won't help your case." The agent said, but his voice was muffled, due to his mask.

S had stood up in this time. "Took ya long enough."

The second agent walked toward S carefully. "You need to fix that distress call option, because NO ONE got it on time."

"Yeah right. Now, back to business. What do we do with red, here? We'll just have to interrogate thick boy, but red, what about him?"

The second agent exhaled loudly. "I have no clue. He's listening while we talk about him."

Bowser had shaken off the daze and stood up, trying to run again. He finally conked out when his legs got kicked out from under him. Bowser flew up, seeing a nice aerial view of the flooring, before he hit the ground and passed out.

"Can you two PLEASE hurry up?" Snapped a third agent. This one wore a vest and undershirt with long sleeves, just like the others, but what contrasted them was that they wore shorts that went to their knees, large boots that had long, unruly socks going a little bit higher than the boots, thick, black gloves, and the fact that they had weird tentacles in place of hair, sharp, pointy white material that wasn't teeth, but resembled it made Mario feel weird.

They were a bit taller that S, who had pulled up his goggles, and was staring at Mario.

"The Italian man is watching us. I'ma tell him."

The third agent instantly interjected. "NO. We're not supposed to do that!"

"He's a respectable man. I think I'll tell him."

"Go ahead. When we lose our jobs, don't look at me."

Mario watched as the S stuck his hand out. "I already said my agent alias."

The second agent, the middle sized one with the hood, mask, guns, and blue eyes stepped forward. "I am Agent L. The L stands for winner. If you tried, I could hit you with one bullet and one only while you drove in a kart at high speed."

The third one stepped up.

"The boys here think it's funny that every agent of my species is labeled 3. It's stuck since then. Don't try messing with me. I'll shatter every bone you have."

Mario felt a tiny bit threatened by 3, but they stopped staring eventually.

Mario looked up at Peach, who was silently watching the entire thing, and then back to the agents, who had started dragging Bowser.

"Open the portal, we've gotta get this guy in."

A bright, green outlined circle appeared nearby Mario's foot.

Mario looked up just as L dumped Bowser into the portal.

The agents then looked back to Mario.

"Well, it's been good talking to you buddy, but it's time we left…" S said, before dropping into the hole.

"Well, it's good to know I've met the legendary Mario before. See-ya sometime, or someplace, later."

L hopped into the portal as well.

3 stared Mario dead in the eye. "Don't get us fired. I'd hate to have to break your ankles to ensure you don't run."

3 walked and fell into the portal.

Mario looked into the hole and gasped in awe, and saw the three agents inside, strapping Bowser into a seat-belt, and then themselves.

"Ok, Multiverse jump in three... " S said, flipping switches in the cockpit.

Mario watched, a smile on his face.

"Two…"

The ship started violently shaking.

"One. Closing gate…"

Mario jumped back when the hole started shutting slowly.

"Jumping now!"

The hole shut, and Mario was left in silence.

 _Whoa_...

Mario looked on the floor and saw S's knife. Maybe I should keep that… Mario picked up the knife and carefully set it in his pocket. _Please don't forget that's there..._

Mario jumped up and opened Peach's cage, before thinking to himself.

_MVPs. I wonder if I could become an agent…_

-·-· ·-·· · ·- - --- -· ·-- ·- ··· ···· · ·-· · 

S piloted the M.V.P ship to a safe spot, and then turned it on autopilot.

"You two can stand up now. Don't take off the face coverings. Tubby might wake up."

L pulled his phone on and gasped at the amazing 12 messages left by his brother.

"Oh boy…. What have we done...?"

"What? Tampering with your brother? Oh, he's not the brightest." S said, mumbling on the second part.

"No, he's really digging the spy thing. I think he may be jealous... I really hope we don't lose our jobs, S!"

S laughed and turned back to the windshield.

"We should be arriving soon. Like I already said, keep your face masks on. Tubby will probably recognize L the best, so... just be careful. K?"

L pulled off his mask for a second to stroke his finely combed, brown mustache and then put it back on.

"Huh? Wuzza-... HEY!" Roared Bowser from the backseat. "You weird creeps will pay for this! I have an army, you know!"

S stayed silent, but turned around just in time to see 3 slap Bowser's face.

"And we know where your son goes to school. Keep it down, fatty."

"FATTY?! Who you callin' fatty, punk? I'll snap ya like a twig, Skinny!"

"I take that as a compliment. I don't eat donuts 24/7, thick boy."

"If I weren't tied up, you'd be dead where you stand."

"And if you weren't so fat and weighing down the ship, we'd have been to our destination by now."

"Screw Peach! I'll kidnap you!"

"Yeah, right after you get a life."

Bowser screamed and squirmed like a child with a temper tantrum.

"Now arriving: M.V.P landing bay."

"Can it, fatty! We're here." S yelled from the cockpit.

S had made his way into the landing bay of the facility, and landed the ship.

3 turned around, her eyes locking with Bowser's.

"You're dead to me." Bowser growled.

"I'm dead to YOU, but to everyone that's not dumb, I'm clearly alive."

S pressed a button on the back of Bowser's chair, turning it to wheelchair mode, and pushed it forward.

L pressed one of the switches in the cockpit, opening the back of the ship for them to exit.

S wheeled Bowser out, and the others followed, L shutting the door behind them.

"Where am I? Where have you creeps taken me?! I demand answers!" Bowser screamed, his loud voice echoing through the place.

"Be quiet, big guy. You'll be home faster than you know it." S said, not mentioning the interrogation Bowser was set to go through.

They wheeled Bowser through to a double door, which led to a long hallway. The hall branched off into many other directions, but they stayed on the straight path.

"Where are you taking me?" Bowser asked, this time more polite.

"To a temporary cell where you will stay for probably a couple hours." S replied.

Bowser groaned like a little child.

"It has a TV."

Bowser stopped groaning like a little child.

They stopped at a room at the end of the hall, where they pushed Bowser in.

An agent at a desk looked up from her phone to look at Bowser.

"Well hello there! S, what's he in here for? He looks fine."

"Well, he had found a grand star. And he also won't tell us who he got it from, so he's here until we can get on with the questioning."

The lady pulled Bowser from his chair, and escorted him to a cell.

"Hey, I like this lady! You three should learn from her!"

S scoffed and turned to leave.

L waited at the ship, as he couldn't stand two more minutes of Bowser.

L had taken his phone out, and was answering to all twelve messages from his brother.

"Luigi"

"Luigi"

"Luigi answer me please"

"Luigi"

"Bro"

"Please answer me"

"It's not about the leftovers I swear"

"Pls anwer"

"*Answer"

"LUIGIIIIIIIII"

"IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII"

"IIIIIIIIIIIIII-"

L finally sent a message back.

"Hi."

"Luigi I saw something cool today where are you"

"The store."

"Please hurry I have something to show you"

"Ok C U"

L sighed, knowing what awaited him at home.

\-- ·- ·-· ·· --- -· · · -·· ··· - --- ·-·· --- ··· · ·-- · ·· --· ···· - 

Mario stared at a small board, the board having several things pinned to it.

"Mario…" Toad, who was invited to come, mumbled. "I really don't see what this is about… You saw WHAT, exactly?"

"Well, Bowser got kidnapped by some strange agents of what's called M.V.P."

Mario wrote that down. "MultiVerse Patrol."

Toad watched Mario write things on the board.

"This isn't making much sense, Mario."

Mario pulled out the knife. "See? Look at the handle. It has the symbol here too."

Toad gave a long look at the symbol.

"Well… I don't know… It looks legit. Should we show the princess?"

Mario put the knife on the table beside him.

"She knows, and she's coming later too. Now, Luigi should've been here a long time ago."

Luigi bust the front door open right when Mario started getting annoyed.

"Luigi! How convenient! I have something to show you!"

Mario pointed the knife Luigi's way, and Luigi yelped.

"Mario! Stop that! Where did you even get that from?"

Mario pointed to the symbol on the handle.

"M.V.P? _Che_?"

Toad looked at Luigi and shrugged.

"Mario… what in the world? You find a strange hunting knife and- stop waving it around!"

Mario put the knife back.

"Brother… I am going to find these agents. We will find them. Look, Luigi. The public, the press, everyone needs to know about this!"

Luigi gave a shrug to the idea.

Mario and Toad exchanged glances.

"The princess is coming too. She wants in as well."

Luigi sighed and turned around.

"Ok. I will help you."

_Oh brother…_

·-··-· ·-- ···· ·- - ···· ·- ···- · -·-- --- ··- -·· --- -· · --··-- -- · ·-· ·-· -·-- ·-·· ··--·· ! ·-··-· 

3 burst awake, not realizing she had fallen asleep, this being the second time she had done this.

A knock on the door was what had woken 3 up, and another one came.

3 stood and slumped to the door.

Behind the door was a green colored Inkling, his tentacles everywhere, because laziness takes its toll, wearing a green woolly sweater, and jeans.

"Travis? I haven't seen you since that weird party that was, like, two months ago?"

Travis, who was actually a bit shorter than 3, laughed awkwardly, before speaking.

"Yeah, um… so, I somehow, out of the blue, randomly found myself with an… umm… a really expensive restaurant reservation, They said to bring a friend. I have none, but one friend. You can guess what I mean by that. So… d-do you want them? I mean, you don't HAVE to, but I thought it would be nice if-"

"Yes. I will accept them." 3 cut in. "So that you can stop being awkward about it."

Travis nodded excessively, and turned to leave.

"Oh, and… Thanks for coming." 3 said, a small smirk on her face.

"Oh… umm. Ok...?"

_What's wrong with him today? He's not acting himself…_

Travis waited until 3 shut the door to look around, make sure nobody stared, regained composure, and then checked the time.

_Ah, 4:30… My shift begins soon. Time for work._

-·· --- -· --- - - ·-· ··- ··· - ···· ·· -- 

S, or, in his house, Simon Shallows, sat on his couch. Simon lived in a large house off the grid.

Simon's favorite show had come on, so he had entirely forgotten about his work to watch it.

No more than a second after he remembered his job's existence, the show cut off.

Simon stood and grabbed his phone.

3 messages popped up, one was a text, one a picture, and one a video.

The message was from the M.V.P base secretary; the nice lady who took in Bowser.

"We finished the interview. If you want the results, here's the video, and a picture of someone he described."

Simon pulled up the interview log first.

"King Bowser Koopa, that is your name, right?"

"Yeah, so?"

"You are here because something has been found in your claws that could show the secrets of the multiverse. Not the thing you want to have your nose in."

"All I did was take a star from the nice man who gave it to me, but he told me not to tell anyone that I did that, because I'd be in deep doodoo if I did… wait…"

"Could you describe this man for me?"

"NO! I won't tell you."

"It is very known by us that the same people have also scammed and killed many of their clients. You are a client. You can take yourself out of danger by telling us where and when he gave you the star."

"Well… hm... Fine. He just appeared asking for money. A lot of money. I'm a king, so I have a lot, but this man asked for about a fourth of my entire vault!"

"What did you do?"

"Well, I gave it to him, obviously. I thought I would have to scam him, but he gave me the star, so I was content."

"Can you describe the man?"

"Well, he had a hood on, so I couldn't see a face, but he wore a leather jacket with some weird symbol on the back. I can't read those Greek symbols well."

"That's enough. We've seen many other descriptions, and yours matches all of them. You will be mind-wiped, and then sent home by Thursday."

"Oh, ok- wait, MIND WIPE?!"

"Knock him out."

Simon looked up at a portrait on the wall, and then to the nearby closet.

_I knew they weren't gonna let that slide!_

Simon opened the closet and pulled out his M.V.P gear, and then opened the front door, and walked onto the lawn.

Simon then pressed the button to open the portal to the M.V.P base.

·- ·-·· ·-·· ···· · -·· --- · ··· ·· ··· ·-·· ·· · 

Travis strutted through the halls of an old, decrepit house like a maniac. The house itself had been broken and destroyed for a while now, so Travis himself hadn't done it…. That's not to say he wished he could have.

Travis reached a point in the house where no one could see him, and opened a portal.

Through the portal was a room, the room had red carpet and cream colored walls.

Travis stepped into the room carefully, and cut off the portal.

A little green Toad watched him from the door. "Well, you made it on time, for once."

"What about Thursday?"

Billy rolled his eyes. "Ah well, Boss gave a surprise meeting, said there's a meeting coming up in two weeks. But until then… You wanna go get some coffee?"

Travis followed Billy to another room, this one solely dedicated to coffee. A round wooden table in the middle, and a counter with all the necessary stuff for coffee.

"What is it?"

"Oohh… I remember that meeting. He was pissed. But he really sounded serious. I think we may be back. The Gamma return." Billy said before sipping his black, flavorless coffee.

"We're going back?"

Billy finished his coffee and hopped out of his seat. "Apparently… Oh well. There's machines to be primed, polished... Seeya around, Travis."

Travis waved and watched Billy hobble down the hall.

Travis soon finished his deal in that room and left for the camera room.

During work inside the camera room, Travis noticed a screen that gave no feed whatsoever.

Travis picked up a headset that sat on the desk and put it on.

As Travis looked back to the screen, he noticed two more inactive cameras.

_Wait… It wasn't like that before…_

Travis turned on communications to hear the ongoing conversation.

"Hey, guys? Is everyone accounted for? Because there's readings of a portal opening, and it's nowhere near time for anyone to arrive.."

"Nope, everyone clocked in."

"Cameras are going out..." Travis said over the comms.

"When did they cut? Billy claims to have just fixed them."

"Minutes ago…"

"Hold on, I'll send Billy your way."

Travis turned off the comms and waited.

About five minutes into Travis's waiting, a knock on the door came.

Travis opened the door, expecting his friend to walk in.

Travis's eyes grew wide when he realized he had just opened the door for an agent.

The agent kicked Travis in the chest, knocking him onto the floor.

Travis jumped back to his feet just as the agent flipped out a nightstick.

Travis grabbed the baseball bat that he kept under his desk for security purposes.

"Listen… Nobody has to get hurt, just put the bat down."

Travis knew he couldn't talk his way out of this, so he just stood with the bat forward.

"We don't have to fight, just lay down the bat and-"

The agent was cut off to a dang hard bat strike to the face.

Travis turned to see Billy in the doorway.

"Um… I guess now we know who broke the cameras, but where's his team?"

"This one's a scout. Alone."

Travis picked up the agent's leg and dragged him away.

"Where are we taking him?" Billy said, following Travis.

"To a cell."

Billy ran ahead of Travis to open the cell.

Travis tossed the agent into the cell, which was white on the inside, and had a glass screen as the entrance. The screen was controlled by a switch, pressing it made the screen open.

Thirty minutes later, the agent woke up.

"Hey, you there! You gotta help me get outta here!"

Travis tilted his head at the man.

_I've never actually seen a human this close up before…_

"Darn… I wish I could speak Inkling."

"Quiet."

The agent backed away from the glass and sat down on the cell floor.

"You work for Gamma, right? I can get you a job as an M.V.P if you want! Just help me escape."

"HEY! Shut it!" Billy yelled.

The agent shut up.

"So, T, Boss gives the okay for mind wipe. We technicians can have the machine ready by next week. It really does take a while to prepare…"

Travis smiled and waved at the agent, and then nodded to Billy.

"Ok…"

Billy yawned and turned around.

"T, I'm going in for the night. I'm on Monday. When's your next work day?"

"Monday…"

-· · ···- · ·-· --· --- -· -· ·- --· ·· ···- · -·-- --- ··- ··- ·--· 

Luigi sighed as Mario, Peach, and Toad all searched M.V.P sightings on Google and found only three results.

"Mario… Why do you want to see these people?" Peach asked, even though Mario had said his motivation several times.

"I want to be one of them! Just think of how safe you would feel with ME watching you all the time! Bowser will never do anything bad ever again!"

Peach shrugged and left it there.

Luigi looked at Mario, who was watching some old dude rant about M. , and then to the door.

_Hmm… I wonder…_

Luigi left the room, a double cherry in his hand, to find his M.V.P suit.

_This'll stop him for sure!_

Mario stopped watching his videos to watch Luigi yell.

"Mario! Look out the window!" He yelled.

Mario looked out the window and screamed like that time he found a spider in his overalls.

Out there he was, the agent L.

Mario flew down the stairs and out the door.

"Hey! Agent L! Remember me? It'sa me, Mario! Don't you remember me?" Mario spat words faster than that time he went trick-or-treating.

"Yes, Mario. You need to stop looking for us. You are putting yourself in massive danger."

Mario's bright smile had an instant game over.

"What? I don't understand…"

L glanced at Luigi, or his copy.

Toad and Peach finally caught up to Mario at this time.

"Wait… They're real? Well, I wouldn't say 'they' more so 'he'" Said Toad, who was also out of breath.

"You thre- four are putting yourselves in danger for a job stopping multiversal threats?"

Mario nodded, along with Toad and Peach.

"You four are not ready to face the secrets of the multiverse. Now, drop the idea, and get some"- _Exercise_ -" sleep."

Mario crossed his arms and frowned. "But… But I can handle tough stuff, you've probably seen me save the princess. I am ready!"

L shook his head and turned around.

"Stop searching. I am warning you."

And with that, L opened a portal under his feet and fell in.

"Wait! This isn't over-" Mario fell to his knees.

"He's gone… No…"

Double Luigi backed out of view to disintegrate.

Mario got back up and turned to Peach and Toad.

"We will NOT quit! I will prove to them that I, Mario Mario, am worthy!"

Peach and Toad exchanged glances, and then Toad raised his little fist.

"Yeah! We can do this!"

Luigi watched from a distance, still in his M.V.P gear.

_Darn! I thought that would make him stop, it just fueled his determination!_

Luigi sighed and changed out of his agent gear and back into overalls.

-·-· ·- -· -·-- --- ··- ···· · ·- ·-· -- · ··--·· 

Simon stepped into a dark room filled with guns, knives, bombs, you name it.

The room was dark and dusty because they hadn't inhabited that room for a month or two.

Simon wasn't here for the weapons, or the laboratory, he was here to see someone.

Simon turned on all of the lights in the facility, and then sat down in the lounge.

Simon tensed when he heard footsteps coming from the hall.

The footsteps got closer and closer, so Simon readied his knife.

Simon saw a figure walk in the room and it was nearly instantly when Simon jumped.

Simon swung the knife, and the figure kicked it across the room.

Simon stopped to see the person.

The person was actually a little, grey spotted Toad.

"HEY, punk, who do ya think… Simon?" The little thing said in his raspy, high pitched voice.

Simon blanched. "C-Captain!... Sorry about the knife… hehe…"

"Grr… I've already strayed from my family to do this job, now my own mate tries to kill me… what a day I've had…"

"Yes, sorry to bother you Captain, but the-"

The Captain walked away without even listening.

"Captain! Wait up!"

Captain walked to the gear room. "So, uhh… Where are the others? The squid girl and Luigi?"

"No, sir, it's just-"

"CAPTAIN!"

Simon sighed.

3 ran and swept the Captain into a very tight hug.

"3, it's nice to be hugged but please put me down before I do something I regret."

3 set the Captain down and backed away.

"Geez, Satan, did somebody steal your sandwich again?"

Captain frowned, probably trying to be intimidating.

"It's Lucifer, and you would be unhappy too if somebody came and told you that was the last day with your family for another several years."

3's smile died away instantly.

"Hey, he's right…" Luigi said from behind everyone. "If you randomly had a hungry nopon run by and nab your sandwich, you'd be mad."

Lucifer was about to yell something consisting of fifteen curse words, but Simon interrupted.

"AHEM! The Gamma problem still exists, and they've already made two moves on us-"

Simon went to interrupt, before being interrupted.

"Three. They kidnapped a scouting M.V.P agent just yesterday. They really are back in business." Interrupted Lucifer.

Simon kept speaking with the other agents, but as he was, Lucifer walked away.

Lucifer walked himself to the gear room, where he put on the hooded vest and picked up a three foot pole.

"Oh, old friend, you will be put to use once again…"

Lucifer grasped the handles, and pressed a button on the side, and stuck a hammer head on the top.

He felt a small twinge of anger, before exhaling what seemed to be painful rage.

Lucifer put the hammer back on it's stand, and walked out to the hall, where the others stood.

"I'm going home for the day, fellas. First order of business next week, we get to the bottom of all of this mess."

3 simply waved.

"Bye bye." Said Luigi.

"Good night, Captain."

Lucifer walked out to the portal room, and left the M.V.P base.

·- -· -·· ··· --- --··-- - ···· · --· ·- -- · -··· · --· ·· -· ··· .

At his house, Simon sat down at his desk and pulled up his laptop screen.

The news was blown up with a lot of things. _President election... deadly viruses... armed people in leather jackets rampaging through the streets... wait, what?_

Simon, after a hard double take, grabbed his gear, slammed his broken distress beacon, and ran out the door.


	2. Getting Places

Travis put on his nicest outfit for the meeting, and set out. Billy had a little tuxedo on as well.

Their boss wore the standard leather jacket as he sat on his chair at the meeting table.

"Okay people. Omega really wanted us to do this, so here we are. First order of business, I've heard rumors that we're going back. These rumors are true. We will be back very soon. This means our technicians will have to work very hard these next few days to get us back on track. Omega also explained that we are to hold off the mind-wipe until further notice. You got that?"

Everybody nodded or said otherwise.

"Good. Today, we will test the ships again. We need them in top-form if we want to rise again. This concludes today's meeting, get to work."

Travis and the others dispersed.

The rest of their shifts, with the exclusion of Billy, went on as normal. Billy and the other technicians worked on the ships and vehicles. The only thing different was that they had the agent to take care of and he was no hassle.

Travis went home at the end of his shift. _Nothing achieved today…_

·· ·- -- ···· · ·- ···- -·-- ·-- · ·- ·--· --- -· ··· --· ··- -·-- 

3 took a plate of fries from the fridge and dumped them into the microwave.

The fries tasted hot on the outside, but when she bit into them, they were actually cold in the middle. As well as the fact that they tasted and felt like salted wet sand.

The fries were gone from 3's plate in a matter of seconds, due to their odd tastiness.

Once the fries were gone, 3 dumped the dish in the sink and traversed toward her basement.

The basement was very orderly and clean, unlike most of her rooms.

In the center of the basement was a huge, leather punching bag, mostly seen in buff men's training rooms. 3, clearly intent on beating the heck out of this bag, threw off her gloves and approached the bag. The first punch felt very good. A large amount of stress felt lifted when 3 thrust her fist into the bag.

Thirty minutes of 3 beating the bag with her bare fists passed.

The indent from 3's fists had grown inward a little. 3 wiped a lot of sweat from her face and sat down. _That felt way better than I expected._

3 pulled out her phone, still panting and out of breath from the training session.

3 felt a small beacon of happiness glowing in her soul before nearly throwing her phone, due to a loud ring and the distress screen showing. 3 ran to the dryer and pulled out her MVP costume.

\-- ·· ---- ·- · ·-·· --··-- -·-· --- ··- ·-·· -·· -·-- --- ··- ···· · ·-·· ·--· -- · ·-- ·· - ···· - ···· ·· ··· ··--·· 

Simon stood in the street while a handful of people with weapons demanded to see the fabled MVPs.

Simon took a deep breath and shouted.

"HEY! Send forth your most skilled swordsman. I want a fair battle."

The people halted and one moved forward. "Alone, are ya, MVP scum? Don't worry. We're not here to kill you. Not yet. We're here to deliver a message. Very simple. But, for kicks, I'll accept your challenge."

Simon laid his hand on his sword holster, and the one in front of him drew his.

As quick as the wind, the man jumped forward, but, even faster, Simon yanked the sword from it's holster and swung upward, slicing the man's eye.

The man clutched his eye. "AAH! You… I don't think anyone understands the urgency of your situation, so let me explain. Our boss kindly instructed us to get you here. I had no idea you would be alone. Normally these things-"

"Just say whatever speech you have prepared and get this over with."

The man looked shocked, as if he had just been interrupted.

"Ok. If we haven't made it obvious, we're back. The message. Very short, not any school essay. Prepare your troops. This time, we aren't pulling any punches. And we're keeping track of every move you make. The turn-based game is started and it's your turn. Hope your merry army is ready-"

Simon jabbed the man's chest with his knee and held him up by his collar. "You've said your speech, now listen to mine. I have no regrets. You dare mess with the flow of time and space, we'll always stop you. Think about that when I lock you up."

The man's six others started talking among themselves. "Should we detonate the rookie now? He's of no more use to us."

Simon quickly kicked back the man before he… exploded, putting a very bad scene in the road. Simon held back from upchucking and looked to the group.

A person wearing a medieval doctor mask stepped forward. "You're all alone. This gives us any chance to surround you."

Simon turned and locked eyes with another group of six people.

_Crap._

They started closing in. Right as they got close, they lunged, and Simon felt something grab him and flew out from the middle of the crowd.

The twelve people stood in a puff of smoke, facing each other.

"Next time, call us BEFORE you're about to die." L said from beside S, loading one of his guns.

"HEY! Where'd he go?!"

L and S, both wielding their weapons, turned to the crowd. "Say… what do we do about them?"

"I highly doubt we have a choice of what to do at this point."

L made a small scowl under his mask, but quickly wiped it off when he saw the group running out of the smoke. They exited the smoke and looked directly toward the two agents and bared their weapons.

The one in front jumped forward and then flew back when his jaw connected with a heel kick.

"Take that!" 3 yelled.

The rest of the people charged at the trio.

Four pursued L, but he laid down a puff of smoke and appeared behind them, firing as fast as his signature dual guns could.

Three more attacked S, he repeatedly countered and struck the ones who weren't fast enough to dodge his quick strikes.

The last four attacked 3, who simply blocked and punched, or kicked, when they exposed sensitive parts.

In time, the group of attackers were all on the ground, knocked out.

"Yeah! We did it!" L cheered.

"That's our job, L. By now I'd think you'd be used to it." mumbled S.

"How do we bring 'em in? We didn't bring the ship." 3 said, scratching her arm.

Just then, they turned and saw the captain landing the ship behind them.

"Oh hey fellas! Just happened to catch the message. Anyway, how many'd you bag in this time?" The captain yelled from the ship.

"Thirteen. One dead. Bomb planted in his chest." S yelled back while L removed his mask to hurl.

"Oh cool. Put them in the cells while I wrap the dead one."

Once done dealing with the people, the captain dropped them all home with the same message for all of them. "Get ready. We have to take off soon. Pack your bags and be ready to depart."

\- ·-· ·- ···- ·· ··· 

Travis went to work the next week and stared when Billy was preparing the MR2.

"I thought Boss said no…"

Billy turned around, a wrench in his little hand. "Omega gave the okay to wipe 'em. This kid won't know what hit him."

Travis shrugged and went to his post.

The day went on as planned, except for the fact that the captured agent had to be told to shut up seven times, because he sang loudly to the music he blasted in his ears, and that Billy had to have sixteen cups of black coffee delivered, because he couldn't "leave his work."

During his lunch break, Travis entered his office, a small twinge of hunger nagging his mind, but he ignored it.

The desk was neat and organized, with a lamp for decoration reasons, given that his ceiling light worked(which, half of the time, didn't.)

Travis picked up his trusty hunting knife and started sharpening it.

Once the knife was sharp enough, Travis stood up and stared the mannequin in his office right where the eyes were supposed to be.

The mannequin had several marks and scratches, a few holes, and a huge dent in its side.

Travis, who had just brandished the sharpened knife, put his hand on the head of the mannequin.

The plastic was cold. It felt terrible, sticking his hand there, but Travis felt a whole lot better when he thrust his knife into the mannequin's stomach area, piercing its plastic body.

Travis stared at the eye holes for a good while, before tearing the knife out at full speed.

Travis holstered the knife and turned to the exit, satisfied.

As Travis exited his room, he saw a line of people at the portal room.

Just as Travis questioned it, his boss walked up and explained the deal.

"Ok. So we've been told the details. We're gonna take something, and Omega wants YOU to lead a squad of four."

Travis pointed to himself for a minute, comprehending the details, but his boss spoke again.

"Do you accept? Because we kinda need the object."

Travis solemnly nodded and his boss wrote something down.

"Good. The heist begins on Thursday, don't be late."

Travis turned around and progressed down the hall, tossing his knife into the air.

···· · ·-·· ·-·· --- ··--·· -·-· ·- -· -·-- --- ··- ···· · ·- ·-· -- · ··--·· 

Luigi and his double cherry self nodded, knowing the plan. Luigi packed his MVP bag and left for the backyard, where he opened a portal and jumped in.

The ship was a mess. Luigi took it upon himself to clean it.

There was a lot to clean up. There were knives lying around, just waiting to be stepped on, there was a half-eaten omelette, for whatever reason there would be somebody's breakfast in a corner, molding. There sat some weird bugs under 3's seat, Luigi executed the creepy bugs in the ship and continued. There were bandages spilled in the medical cabinet, the weapons cabinet was unruly and disorderly, and the costume cabinet(which was for S's pleasure,) had empty hangers and the clothes were all over the floor.

Luigi felt like he had accomplished something when the ship was in ship-shape.

Just as Luigi was thinking, he turned around and slammed into 3.

3 kicked Luigi across the room, out of reaction.

"AAH! Sorry! You scared me!"

Luigi stood up, after checking to make sure he wasn't bleeding.

"I was wondering where you were. Now all we need is-"

Simon flew in through a portal planted in the wall, right into his seat.

"Simon."

Simon quickly stood and set his knives in the weapons cabinet.

"Well, today marks our set-off. If we could only find the-"

The captain fell into the driver's seat. "Oh, you're all here! Good. Strap in, we're heading off in a few minutes."

The few minutes passed faster than anyone had anticipated.

"You all strapped in?"

Everybody nodded.

"Good. Setting off in ten…"

They all put away their electronics.

"Nine.."

Luigi readied his throw up bag.

"Eight.."

Simon sheathed a knife.

"Seven…"

3 was asleep.

"Three…"

Luigi quickly panicked when he realized that the Captain had skipped four numbers.

"Two…"

Luigi shoved earmuffs on himself, as did Simon, and Luigi put them over 3's head.

"One. Opening gate."

The lights went off, and the view from the windshield became a blinding white light.

Once at their destination, they piled out of the ship. They all questioned why Luigi had run into the base so fast, but their questions were answered when they saw him hurling in the bathroom.

Simon walked into the sleeping quarters right as 3 yelled something about claiming beds.

Luigi darted in and hopped to the top of the bunk bed. "I got the top bunk!'

3 ran in and nabbed Luigi's hat from his head and darted off.

Luigi jumped off the top bunk and chased her down the hall.

Simon, through the chaos, had placed his suitcase in the recliner that sat in the lounge, as well as his knife belt. The captain had set up in the captain's room, which was really a thing. The captain's room had a larger bed, a mirror, a bathroom, the wi-fi password, and it's own personal wardrobe. The agent's room had a bunk bed and a wardrobe. Not much.

After Luigi had regained his hat, he made his way to the mission room. The room with the large TV and the pipes from which they go down to access their MVP costumes.

"Wow. It's been a year. I can't believe it. And look! We haven't gathered any dust!"

Simon strutted in with a knife balanced on his finger.

"Yeah. It really is surprising. Normally we would gather in that horrible excuse for a base, but now? I put in a good word with Alpha. We've got regal uniforms now."

The captain walked in and stepped into the pipe chamber and then stopped.

"There should have been a new recruit somewhere here, but Alpha said he's new. I've no idea where they are, but I'm getting impatient."

Just then, they heard something coming down the hall.

Like, little footsteps, coming fast.

Simon stepped back before he accidentally beheaded anything again.

Luigi fainted when he saw it.

3 made the weirdest face.

The being in the hall was... small. It had a pointy, little puff of blue hair, with ditto eyes, and freckles dotting his face.

"Hello… My name is Alph. I was recruited. Is this the right team?"

Luigi and Simon exchanged glances, equally confused.

The captain approached Alph. "Nice to meetcha, Alph! I do hope you like your time here! It's a big risk, learning the multiverse the way you did, but trust me, we'll do all we can to keep you safe. Now, meet your mates! This is Luigi."

Luigi waved, flashing an awkward smile.

"He's the one with the ranged weapons. This is Simon."

Simon quickly pocketed a knife and waved.

"Don't question the knives… that's his business. And then there's-"

Alph screamed as 3 tackled him.

"AAH! CUTE THINGS ARE MY WEAKNESS!"

Alph had the face of dread for a while, until Simon got 3 off of him.

"And then there's 3. She likes small things that she finds cute, and has shattered an entire nervous system with one punch. She contrasts."

Alph waved at 3, who was repeatedly elbowing Simon to let go of her, while her eyes were wide and she smiled like she was insane.

Alph turned to the other two.

"Well, it's very nice to meet my new comrades! Maybe, when the squid one decides to calm down, we could get to know each other!"

Luigi felt like he could have a new friend.

Simon felt like he could teach the kid some tricks.

3 wanted to hug the kid until he turned purple.

Alph found his spot in the lounge, right on the second lounge chair, and sat down his bags.

The agents all went to their beds and slept.

The next morning, Luigi got up before everybody, but found Alph in the kitchen, drinking a smoothie he had made himself.

"Oh! Good morning. I'm not sure what you guys eat, but we Koppaites eat fruit."

Luigi looked at the ingredients Alph had laid out.

Alph finished his juice, sat the cup in the sink, and walked away.

Luigi finally noticed the hunger biting at his stomach and made some food.

After breakfast, the agents migrated to the meeting room. Alph found himself a nice seat with a good view of the TV, and it was a good seat too, given his size, it had to be.

The captain trotted to the screen and turned it on.

"Today, we are going to work toward finding that scout that Gamma captured. This means we need everybody on deck- 3! Stop that!"

3 moved from directly behind Alph.

"Anyway. We're gonna have to reboot the signal antenna for a start. Alph. That is your mission. L will go with you. The rest of us are gonna start tracking the scout's last places, so as to catch a Gamma base."

Alph peeped his head out of the hatch that led into dead space.

"So, where's this antenna at?"

Luigi hooked a harness on Alph, then himself, before jumping out of the ship and pulling Alph out with him.

"Just follow me. We should be there in no time."

Luigi and Alph hopped over to a control panel on the side.

Alph sat there, fiddling with the controls for a while, until they both heard a loud rumble.

Luigi moved back when the large antenna started rising between his feet.

Alph smiled triumphantly.

3 and Simon heard the rumble, and a signal was caught.

"Look, there! A pocket dimension appeared where he was last. Just how are we gonna get there?"

Simon shrugged. "Let's let the captain figure that one out."

The captain met them all back in the meeting room.

"Ok. We found his signal. Get yourselves armed and ready. First thing tomorrow, we get a fellow agent back."

·- ·-·· ·--· ···· ·· ··· ··· --- -· -··· --- ·· 

Travis kicked and wrestled with another Inkling. They were trying to run.

They shoved Travis back, Travis got up and tried again.

She nearly made it to the door, but Travis grabbed her shoulders and yanked her back into the room.

Travis picked up the nearest object, but he got hit with a bat.

"Stay down." They said.

They turned their back for a second, just a second, and Travis brandished his knife.

They gasped as Travis drove the knife into their back.

Travis yanked back his knife, causing them to fall over. Travis bent down, turned them around, and cracked a smile.

Travis stabbed their chest. And then he stabbed them again. And again. And again, he stopped after a while.

It took a while, but Travis cleaned himself of their ink, wiped the place clean, set her in her bed, and left, that small smile still on his face.

-· · ···- · ·-· --· --- -· -· ·- ·-·· · - -·-- --- ··- -·· --- ·-- -· 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Pasting from it's original form, Fanfiction.net(where ssn1 is complete)  
> *Added more code  
> *Slight grammatical edits


	3. Green and Mean

The next day, the agents prepared for takeoff.

Alph had fixed up the ship the day before, and it ran a lot smoother.

All of the agents stepped into their pipes and went down to the previous level, which held their costumes. Their regal costumes weren't there yet, so they had to wear their normal outfits.

The next level was the garage, where the ship sat, awaiting a driver.

The captain placed himself in the driver's seat and turned around.

"Comms check, can everybody hear me?"

Everybody nodded, including Alph, who was not in the ship, but staring at the computer in the main room.

"Good. You know how we used to do, it's just like that. Split up and find the agent, take whatever intel you can find. You got that?"

Alph watched from the cameras as the ship jumped, leaving him alone.

The agents could not land directly in the Gamma port, so they turned on the cloaking device and went in via the ship port.

The captain said it, so they split up, in groups of one.

L traversed the halls, a gun in his hand and a defensive stance taken.

The rooms were neat, and the halls were clean.

The other agents tuned into comms to hear L say something.

"I found a room. It's filled with stolen artifacts. They're everywhere. It seems as if they've been taking stuff. What? There's a list- OH NO."

The guards walked in and polished a power star in it's glass chamber.

L, who had safely ensconced himself in a box, turned on his recorder.

"So, Boss wants to take something . You have any idea what that is?"

The other guard laughed a little. "It's gotta be something good, if THE Omega drafted Green to get it."

"Green. He's cool. His universe calls him a serial killer. Did you see him jack up that mannequin?"

"Yeah, he knows a thing or two about killing people mercilessly. Maybe we should ask him for advice."

"Hey, boss wants us out on the field again. Some MVPs showed up. Let's go."

"Gotcha."

L exited the box and turned off his recorder, before snapping a picture of the list and leaving.

-· · ···- · ·-· --· --- -· -· ·- ·-· ··- -· ·- ·-· --- ··- -· -·· 

Billy strapped the agent into the mind wiping machine, which looked and acted a lot like an electric chair, just without the high voltage, and excluding killing them.

Billy had tried to get the agent to take out his earphones, but he refused, so Billy left it alone.

Right as Billy turned on the device, he heard something behind him. He hit the switch to turn on the device and turned around, just to lock eyes with 3, who kicked Billy across the room.

3 went to pick up Billy, but stopped when she noticed the agent in the chair, who was unnaturally twitching and yelling.

3 ran over and hit the off switch, turning off the machine, and ending the agent's pain.

"Hey, hey, you okay?"

The agent shook himself, before standing up. "Yeah, I'm good. Just a headache."

3 trotted over to Billy, who was knocked out, and turned on comms.

"Hey, guys? I found our guy, and we have a prisoner.

The captain replied.

"Good! Now, choice: we could leave these guys alone and leave, or we could-"

L threw threw on his comms, panting heavily. "GUYS, I GOT CAUGHT!"

"Never mind."

3 picked up Billy with one arm, and helped the agent with the other.

The captain and S had caught the two guards in the hall, and were fighting with them.

The captain fought with extreme speed, while using the act of momentum to attack with the hammer as fast as he did.

In time, the guards had been knocked out.

The agents took the guards and Billy to the ship, as well as the scout.

Back at base, the agents had locked up the guards, the toad, and gave the scout a chair.

Simon sat down near the scout.

"Are you okay?"

The scout looked up, shivering.

"Yes. I am fine, just a headache."

"What's your name?"

"My name? My name is Janet. Janet Smith."

Janet fiddled with the food he was supplied with. "I'm not hungry. You can have that, if you want."

"Say… could you describe some of the people that put you in the cell?"

Janet was quiet for a moment.

"I don't remember which one put me in there, but that BLASTED green toad helped. There was a green inkling. I don't remember what his name was. They all had names. The green one was drafted to execute some prisoners. Of course, I have no idea why, but he did this right in front of me. He's a psychopath. I think he's gone now, but he's heartless. I've never seen that. I wish I was there to help them, but he was fast. He stabbed them eighteen times. The others said he does that like a sport. Apparently, he did it yesterday, to an ex of his."

Simon had written that down.

"Huh. That's weird. Anyway, I'll go question the toad. You get some rest."

Simon proceeded to the cells, where Billy was held.

"What's your name?" He asked.

"Why should I tell you? All I'm gonna get is killed by your 'leader' anyway."

"It may spare you to give us helpful enough info, you know."

"And I don't like liars."

"If you want to play it that way, I'll make the cook skip your dinner."

"I think you're angry. Are you angry?"

"That is none of your concern. I want to know. Who do you work with, who do you work for, and why are you doing this?"

"Ahem. That is none of your concern."

"It isn't, but we kinda need you to speak, or you and I both have a chance to suffer violent deaths by the hands of your colleagues."

Billy smugly smiled. "It pains me to say this, but they won't kill me. Even if they wanted to, I'm important."

Alph was in the kitchen, making a fruit salad, when Simon walked in, clearly annoyed.

"Dangit. The toad won't speak."

Alph sat at the table with a bowl of fruit.

"He sounded angry. Maybe you should approach this differently. Make him tell you something you didn't want to know." Alph said, winking on the last part.

Simon completely ignored Alph's advice and walked away.

·-··-· -·-· ·-·· · ·- - --- -· --··-- -·· --- -· ·----· - ··· ·- -·-- -·-- --- ··- -·· ·· -·· -· ·----· - -··· · ·-·· ·· · ···- · ! ·-··-· 

Billy looked up at the camera watching him.

_It's currently being operated._

The camera stopped moving and the red light indicator went off.

_Hm…_

Billy turned around and pulled out a makeshift bomb from a soda he asked for.

"I hate glass walls."

·-··-· ·· -·· --- -· ·----· - -··· · ·-·· ·· · ···- · ·· -· - ···· ·· ··· ! ·· ·----· -- ·-·· · ·- ···- ·· -· --· ! ·-··-· 

The agents had just set out for new lands they had been assigned to explore, leaving Alph to watch the prisoners.

Alph regretted being left behind when he heard a loud explosion from the cells, cutting on the loud alarm the escaped prisoner had no intention of

Alph slammed into Billy, who screamed something loud and incomprehensible.

Billy ran the other way, looking for an exit.

Alph tried chasing Billy, Billy almost making it away, if it weren't for him tripping and falling over. Alph tripped over Billy and then they were both on the ground.

Alph pulled out his security taser and Billy's eyes went big, as he mouthed the words, "Please don't…"

Billy blacked out as Alph jabbed the taser into his leg.

·-··-· -·· --- -· ·----· - - ··- ·-· -· --- -· -- · --··-- -·-· ·-·· · ·- - --- -· ! ·-··-· 

"I'm hungry."

Luigi groaned as their friend repeatedly whined about food.

"3, didn't you pack snacks?"

"Yeah, but I left them on the ship."

Luigi and 3 noticed that Simon had walked far ahead of them.

"Hey! Wait up!"

Simon stopped and pointed up. "There. A department store. It's got to have food. Content?"

3 stared at the sign for a moment. "Exactly WHERE are we again?"

The captain switched on his comm. "You fellas are scouting the new terrain. It's called… what's it called again? Oh, it's called Fourside."

3 was already on her way inside the shop.

5 minutes later, Luigi walked out, carrying several bags of fast food, 3 following, chewing what seemed to be fried fish. Simon was grumbling and putting away his wallet.

"My paycheck can never stay in my wallet before the next…"

The agents patrolled for some time, occasionally speaking to some city folk, until they reached another place 3 found interesting. This time, it was a large building labelled Topolla theater.

Of course, Simon paid for the tickets for them to see inside of it.

The show that played was a lady wearing a slick, black dress strutting up and downstage, singing a tune until something happened, like a sweaty old man trying to hop onstage and do something very illegal.

3 walked out with a smile. "The best part was when the fat old guy got taken away."

Luigi followed, nodding in somewhat agreement. "Yeah, maybe I would have enjoyed it more if the man hadn't tried to... ruin the show…"

Simon followed, not at all amused. "Waste of money, waste of time. Not very amusing toward me. At least it benefits you."

The crew looked up at the sky when they got outside. "Well, we've patrolled the city. Wasn't this one out of… seven? Six? It may have been six." Simon tried to remember the entire way back, but didn't.

·-··-· -- ·- -·-- -··· · -·-- --- ··- ··· ···· --- ··- ·-·· -·· ···· ·- ···- · ··· - --- ·--· ·--· · -·· ·- ··-· - · ·-· ··· ···· · -·· ·· · -·· ! ·-··-· 

Alph had a hard time explaining the what happened while they had left.

"What? Did he escape or not?"

Alph stuttered. "Y-yes, he did, but I stopped him."

"Escape. Escape, meaning, got out of the complex."

"OH, ok. No. He didn't."

Billy groaned from the cell.

"And I may have electrocuted him."

The agents (excluding the captain,) exchanged glances back and forth.

"Yeah… we've done that ourselves a few times… no need for sorrow." Simon mumbled, adding something else under his breath that nobody could hear, but included the words, "long" and "death."

Alph felt less sorry when they all mentioned tasing a prisoner.

Not a minute later, the captain trotted in, a paper in his hand.

"Okay fellas, apparently we have some movement detected nearby our base. One of us will have to keep watch. It went under cloaking an hour ago, it could be anything…"

Alph and Luigi shivered a little bit upon thinking about staying up all night.

Simon raised his hand. "I'll do it."

The captain shrugged. "Ok. You know the drill. If anything sus happens, wake me up or hit the alarm."

Two hours into Simon's watch, he had drunk his third cup of coffee.

_I WILL stay awake. I WILL NOT fall asleep. I… won't…_

Simon woke when his head hit the counter beside the coffee machine.

_Dangit!_ thought Simon as he chugged the entire coffee pot.

Simon woke up thirty minutes later, his head on the counter again.

Alph walked in. "You've been asleep for a while now. I thought I'd help."

It took no more than an hour before Alph had gotten too comfortable and fallen asleep on the recliner, while Simon fell asleep on the counter again.

Simon woke to 3 slapping his face.

"WAKE UP! Captain didn't tell you to fall asleep!"

Simon groaned. "Maybe doing this was a mistake…"

3 sat down beside him. "Well, here. I'll make sure you don't fall asleep again."

Thirty minutes later, Simon felt as if 3 had upheld her word. She was asleep, but snored loudly and kept Alph and Simon up.

"At least L and the captain are sleeping well…"

·-· ·· ·--· ·- ·-·· ·--· ···· ·- -·· ·-· · ·- -- ---··· -·--·- 

Mario turned to (double)Luigi, Toad and Peach.

"Today, friends, we chase our first lead. A denizen of this here town was captured by MVPs. How we know this? Camera footage. It's time for it. The MVPs hunt."

The four raced to the hunters van, which was just a minivan but with MVP hunters sprayed with a spray can on the side.

On the way, Double Luigi texted the original.

"Mario's not giving up. Today we got a lead on his MVPs deal."

Luigi trotted into the room, dark rings around his eyes.

"Oh, Luigi. Shouldn't you be asleep?"

Luigi yawned and sat down. "My bro… he's so smart, it's a curse. He's finding LEADS!"

Simon slammed his fist on the counter. "Dangit. I'm regretting telling him anything."

Luigi turned to Simon and Alph. "Well, it's not your fault… actually it is. I can't sugarcoat it, I hate the drawbacks of this job. Like, you can't tell anybody, but while you're on the field, you have bragging rights?"

"Just another day for us, right?" Simon said, with a sigh at the end.

Two hours of conversing later, all of them had moved to the couch, and were all asleep on it.

Simon woke up and felt a small hand yank him forward. "SIMON!"

All of the agents had mini heart attacks when they woke to the voice they feared.

"All of you fell asleep?! I mean, I appreciate the attempt to help each other, but, really! You guys should have told me you couldn't last the night."

"I'm sorry, sir, it won't happen again." Simon apologized many times after that, but it takes too much effort to write seventeen of "Sorry, sir."

3 just shrugged and walked away, as if she hadn't done anything wrong.

Alph joined the sorry train, as did Luigi.

"No need for all that, I would have slapped all of you if something had happened, but do not worry, the prisoners are all still there. Next time, I'm doing watch. You guys aren't ready for that, it seems."

3 returned with an apple.

The captain led them to the scanning table, showing a blinking sign.

"See that? That's Gamma's distress beacon. They crashed. If we could get to them first, we could see what they think they're doing nearby. Get ready the patrol runner. We move after lunch."

···· · -·-- --··-- ···· · -·-- - ·· -- · - --- -·· ·· · !

Mario heard a knock on the door, and was very surprised when he saw Bowser in front of it.

"Mario. I understand that we are rivals and that we totally hate each other, but- uhh-"

Mario knew what Bowser wanted. "You wanna help me find the MVPs?"

"Yes. That."

Mario smiled a little. "Good! Come in, I'm going over some evidence we found. We checked a nearby camera system, a small, green toad was leaving from his house."

Bowser tilted his head, Mario noticed. "Let me add more color to that. A little, green toad was leaving his house an unnatural way. I think he's got something to do with our guys."

Bowser looked back and forth, before presenting a tape.

"I have camera footage of what happened last month. The MVPs are real."

Mario's eyes lit up. " _OH MIO DIO_! We've hit the jackpot!"

Mario looked to Bowser. "Ok. I'll get the crew. We're getting closer, I can smell it!"

When the others arrived, Mario played the tape Bowser brought.

"So, we're looking at proof that what we've been looking for for about… a month now. Why can't we show the public?" Toad queried.

"I'm not showing it _yet._ When we've got it all together, I'll give the public what they want. For now, we're gonna try as hard as we can to get our hands on anything we can find."

Toad and Peach had so many arguments, until Mario repeated his words. "Anything we can find _that is relevant._ "

Toad and Peach let Mario have that line and left him alone.

·-··-· ···· --- ·-- -·· ·- ·-· · -·-- --- ··- -··· ·-· ·· -· --· - ···· ·- - ··- ·--· ··--·· ! ·-··-· 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Added code  
> *Fixed errors


	4. Up And Down

Travis was washing his favorite green sweater, the one he had messed up.

Yellow stains on a woolly sweater aren't easy to wash out, especially not when you have to hand wash it.

After successfully washing the bright yellow stains out, Travis hung up the sweater to be dried.

Travis's house was very neat and clean. The walls were painted many colors. The wall's paint job was very sloppy. Some sections had random colors of paint spread across half of the house, others had random dots or splotches.

The shelf that backed against the wall nearest to the basement had random trinkets all over it.

Travis went to the closet and looked through his options.

_Dang it. I messed up my last good sweater. Well, while I wait, I could take Lisa to the other location..._

Travis went to the basement, where Lisa, a bright yellow colored inkling, sat, tied up and gagged.

Travis picked Lisa up, enduring her wild squirming and muffled curse words, and went outside.

Once Travis had dumped Lisa into the back seat of his car, Travis picked up his suddenly ringing phone.

"Hello?"

"Hi! Travis, you know me by now, if you don't, it's-"

3 sounded like that time she ate a bowl of sugar and had to go to the hospital. Extremely giddy and happy.

Travis covered the microphone and sighed before removing his hand and answering, putting on his most recognized act.

"Yes. I recognize you. What do you need?"

"Hey, so, at work, I found out that there's a serial killer near your area, have you seen anything?"

Travis looked at Lisa, who was now in the back of his car. "Heh… No. What was his color?"

"Gre-... You know, they didn't specify."

"Well, I'll be alert then. Is there anything else you need?"

"You sound tired. Are you okay?"

Travis quickly shoved a knife into his pocket.

"Yep. You know I just got back from vacation, so my sleep schedule is basically a mess. You know what I mean, right?"

"Yeah... "

Travis smiled. _You understand. Good._

"Yeah… it's hard, but I'm getting there."

"Yeah… Ok, well I gotta go. It was nice speaking to you again, work has me currently, but when I get back, I'll speak to ya, 'kay?"

Travis rolled his emerald eyes and quickly answered. "Y-yeah, see you."

Travis hung up and then looked at Lisa.

"What do I do with a childhood friend, Lisa? I mean, you WERE one… I can't just drive a knife through her chest and say she's dead. I am not just a typical stereotype. Even psychopaths need friends… you know what?"

Travis paced and pondered for a minute while Lisa glared at him.

"That's it. I won't kill her. She'll be my friend to the end. The end being the singular moment she finds out about my secret life. Then I can drive fifteen knives through her and say she's never been anything more than useless. Yes. My philosophy. Kill her when she tries to get me out of the game. Ok, ready to go?"

···· · ·-· · ·-·· ·· · ··· ___

3, after hanging up, looked at Luigi.

"So, your friend, Timothy-"

"Travis."

"Yeah. Travis. Is he one of us?"

3 shrugged. "If he is, he hasn't told me."

"Well then. So…. is he your boyfriend?"

3 glared at Luigi with a desire to kill and it took her entire being not to punch and shatter his rib cage.

"NO HE IS NOT! Why does everybody say that?!"

"Because it seems like you like him. Or maybe you're childhood friends. I think you like him."

3 ignored Luigi's annoying shipping and continued with training.

Luigi couldn't wipe the smile off his face. "But really… do you?"

3 punched and hit Luigi's hand harder than normal.

"NO."

Luigi felt like he wanted to know, but why? It couldn't get past his mind, so he embraced the feeling to know.

"Are you suuuuure-"

The next punch Luigi was supposed to catch with his hand, he caught with his diaphragm.

"Back off."

Luigi held his chest in pain. _Well THAT hurt..._

30 minutes later, the agents were in the lounge.

The captain walked in, an urgent matter on his mind.

"Agents. Look. There's a ship ON our exchange."

Alph and Luigi stopped playing cards to look at the captain's picture.

Indeed, there was a ship on the exchange.

"Should we investigate it?" Simon asked, squinting to make sure there was actually a ship ON their exchange.

"Yeah. I've GOTTA see this!" 3 said, running to the changing pipes.

The captain looked around, then back to Simon. "Clearly, yes. Yes we are."

After changing, the agents set off.

"Huh. He used our exchange to sneak aboard." The captain said, while steering to land near the other ship.

The other ship was not easy to open, but Luigi had pried it open.

The ship had very few things, it looked just like the interior of an MVP ship.

3 picked up a recording tape and shoved it in her inside vest pocket.

The agents went through the ship, picking through many things.

"Hey, Captain, look." L pointed to a crate near the driver's seat.

The captain opened the crate.

A small subspace bomb sat in half of the crate.

"There's one." The captain said, a small bit of fear in his tone. "That box holds TWO."

"Where's the other?" S said, searching the floor.

"The other one is where the people who drove this ship are. In our base."

The agents ran in and saw the other bomb, counting down from five minutes.

"OH NO." The captain ran over to the bomb and started hyperventilating.

"Alph!" Luigi started running around, looking for their comrade.

"Welp, that's it. We're gonna die here, it was nice meeting you all." Simon said, thinking about how he would write his will.

3 looked over to the bomb while the others searched for Alph.

The captain passed by, calling Alph's name.

3 stood over the bomb, which had just reached 2:37.

The captain fainted. Luigi looked at the captain, then to 3. Luigi fainted as well. Simon saw 3 and started hurrying up with writing his will.

3 had her switchblade out and was bent over near the bomb, about to cut one of the wires.

"Isn't it normally the red one?"

Simon shrugged.

3 looked back to the bomb. "I'll cut the red one."

The bomb's timer stopped, and the red numbers flashed. 3 smiled a victorious smile.

"We win."

"AND..." The captain paraded the other bomb down the hall. "We have something to report to Alpha. Get some rest. Tomorrow's a busy day."

···· · ·-· · ··· ···· · -·-· --- -- · ··· 

Travis, because of his job, set off with an eighteen year-old kid whom his boss wanted him to take for some ungodly reason.

"Where are we heading?" The kid asked.

Travis took to frankly ignoring her, because she had been given the details already, so there was no need to rewind and explain what she already knew.

The destination was a very familiar MVP base, where, as his boss said, "they held an important crew member we need back," but had left out that Amber, the kid, was supposed to come with him.

Travis kept thinking, why can't my boss do it? I mean, he's able enough to go and do the-

Amber and Travis flew forward when the ship hit a gravity exchange and they stopped moving.

"What happened?"

Travis stood and moved his tentacles from his face. "We hit a gravity exchange."

Amber looked at Travis, confused.

"That means we're here..."

Amber threw on her regal uniform, flaunting it until Travis gave her a look that said a lot, but the main message was, "no."

Travis had left Amber at the entrance to keep guard as he went to find Billy.

The entire base was NOT the way Travis had imagined an MVP base. There were family pictures, weird souvenirs, there was a fruit smoothie on the counter. Travis tried not to help himself to the cup's contents.

Billy was relatively easy to find. The lower rooms had the cells and prisoners.

Billy, who was sitting in a large cell alone, was watching the TV, but didn't look like he was enjoying it.

A thought resembling, _That show is cliche_ rang in Travis's mind, but he didn't want to say that, so he gathered his thoughts and moved closer.

"Hey-."

Billy turned and nearly screamed.

"Oh my goodness! Finally! You don't know how long I've been waiting for you to-"

Travis signaled Billy to be quiet.

While Amber looked for the door key, Travis reached into his pack and pulled out a subspace bomb.

"What? Boss made you bring a sub-bomb?"

Travis set the timer. _10 minutes should do the trick._

Right as Travis finished setting the bomb, Amber returned with a key card.

"Just so you know, there was an angry Koppaite, he's knocked out now, but I think he activated a distress beacon..."

Travis sighed.

"Then let's go."

"Wait. What if we took the Koppaite with us?"

Amber said, pointing to a knocked out Alph.

Travis scooped up an unconscious Alph and turned to the others.

"Let's get out of here."

·-·· · ·- ···· -·-· ·· -- - ·-· ··- ···· · ···· ··· 

3 days pass.

Mario, Toad, Peach, and Bowser met up nearby the lost toad's house.

"Ok guys. We have a plan. When the toad comes home, we use Operation: Bag dad. Ya got that?"

Everybody nodded.

"Good. It might be a while 'till the toad returns, so it'd be best to wait here for right now. Toad, Luigi, you two take the day, Peach, I and Bowser have the night."

The crew went over the plan one more time before Mario began his shift with Peach and Bowser.

"Do you really believe that this is going to work, Mario?" Luigi asked.

"Yes. I firmly believe that this guy is an MVP."

Luigi sighed. "Fine, I'll help."

The crew took their places and waited.

1 day of waiting later...

Mario woke up Luigi and Toad, while Bowser and Peach readied the bag.

The small, green toad walked toward his house, yawning.

The toad screamed and fainted when Bowser jumped from his hiding spot.

"Huh... that was a lot easier than expected..." Bowser mumbled as he dumped the toad into the bag.

2 hours later...

Billy woke up in a chair, rope pathetically tied to his arms and legs.

"Good. You're awake." Mario said, trying his best to sound and look dramatic.

"Dude. Really? I get home after a whole bunch of bull-crap and here I am, tied up in a basement. Oh, and for what? Because I stole that bread yesterday? no, wait... That wasn't me because-"

Mario felt very impatient. "OK. All we want to know, all I want to know, what happened three weeks ago?"

Billy laughed like he had seen Luigi when Mario wore that ghostface costume.

"What's so funny?"

Billy looked Mario in the eye. "I wondered why they said they would never hire you. I tried to, I WANTED to know, and here it is. The sole reason they won't hire you. You're not smart enough. Never were, never will be."

Mario stared at Billy, questioning Billy's motives.

"I don't understand."

Billy smiled more. "See? You don't. I heard them speaking. They won't hire you. You can't hold that much info."

Mario realized something weird. "You heard them speaking? If you are one, why aren't they telling you this?"

"Lemme say something, pasta boy." Billy said, his countenance now a scowl.

"I am not one of them. In fact, I'm one of their bitter enemies."

Mario started denying it. "No. How do you open portals then? I thought that only MVPs could do that."

"Lawfully. MVPs can LAWFULLY make portals. I don't. Maybe this is all confusing, yes, but you won't be here to whine to your MVP friends."

Toad, Peach, Luigi, and Bowser walked in.

"Mario! You weren't supposed to do this without us!"

Billy had untied himself and was now holding some sort of watch.

"This'll prevent you from spoiling our little secret."

Billy pressed something on his watch and pointed to the ground right in between Luigi and Bowser.

A portal opened, a portal just big enough to take all of them (except Billy) down inside of it.

As Mario fell, he saw Billy looking down from the portal, waving and staring with that unholy smile.

-·· --- -·-- --- ··- ··· - ·· ·-·· ·-·· - ·-· ··- ··· - ···· ·· -- ··--·· 

Travis went to his bunker, underground.

Lisa was now in a room, not tied up or gagged, but in a locked room.

"Hey! Are you still here, creep?!"

Travis frowned. _Enough with the name calling!_

Lisa's room consisted of a bed, a mirror, and a bathroom. Literally nothing else.

"Are you enjoying your stay? It IS free, after all."

Lisa looked at Travis, who now was watching through the large, glass pane in the door.

"I'm almost done with you. Just a few more-" - _weeks-_ "days and then…"

Travis pulled the wheeled mannequin in and slowly sliced off the head.

"You think I'm scared of you? If I were out there, you'd be on the floor, crying!"

Travis looked at Lisa with deathly sass levels.

"No. I doubt you'd ever touch me. Maybe when I was faking, but you're about to die anyway, so…"

Travis turned around and started trotting toward the exit.

"Enjoy your stay."

Lisa yelled much more, but Travis smugly ignored it.

"Yelling won't get you anywhere, Lisa."

-·-· ·- -· -·-- --- ··- ···· · ·- ·-· -- · ··--·· 

Alph slowly opened his eyes. _I have to protect the… Wait. Where am I?_

"MY GOD, how long does it take for you guys to wake up? Geez, first the hacotation-"

The green inkling mumbled something of correction.

"Don't tell me what I already know, Travis! Anyway, first the other guy and now you. You are actually an MVP though. Cool."

Billy tossed a taser in his hand. "Glad you're awake... listen to the rules. You don't have a choice. I WILL zap you."

Alph yawned, but jolted awake when Billy tapped his leg with the taser.

"WAKE UP, FRUIT FLY!"

Alph glared at Billy. "What do you want...?"

"You to listen. I already told you. If it leads to your death, I'll do it. You're gonna listen to my presentation, or I'm gonna do something I'll regret."

Alph looked to Billy's side. "Who's your buddy?"

"A refined friend and extremely skilled serial killer. Dare escape, you'll find yourself skewered..."

Alph wanted to laugh, but he halted as Billy shocked the air as a warning.

"I'm gonna say it again. Listen to the rules. You don't have a choice."

Alph went to speak, but Billy smiled and interrupted.

"Rule number one. You're a benefit prisoner. An indentured servant with no contract. Or a slave. The wording really doesn't matter, you're under our control. This means, you'll be working for us. You do NOT have a say in what we make you do. Step outta line, and..."

Billy shocked Alph's leg again.

"Rule number two. Lunchtime. You eat what and when we say so, or you starve... I don't really care."

Alph tampered with the new vest he had been shoved in.

"That is something we... borrowed. If you try to run, it'll... motivate you."

Alph looked to the assistant again. "Why is HE here?"

"You DID hear the rules, right?" Billy said, clearly ignoring Alph's questions.

Alph nodded.

"Good! Such a smart boy. If you hadn't, I'd have to shove this taser up your-"

"BUT, we can guarantee, it's not all boring... we have some... fun... events we use the benefits for..."

a brown haired, blue eyed, six foot, girl wearing jeans and the same dark green vest as Billy and his assistant. (or Amber, you tell me.)

Billy shocked the air again. "I hope you like Russian roulette!"

The three turned around, Billy tossed an apple at Alph's face, and then they left, laughing.

·- -· -·· -·· · ··· · ·-· - -·-- --- ··- 

Amber entered a room with a plan spread across a large portion of the wall.

"Father."

A figure wearing a purple vest with an Omega on the back turned from the plan.

"I have a third pupil for the ultra league. Shall we give them the news now?"

The figure, owning unruly, messy brown hair and pale green eyes looked her way.

"Are you really sure we can use them?"

Amber solemnly nodded.

"Then so be it. Don't deliver the news, just put him on the list. The time isn't right yet."

Amber nodded. "Yes father."

The man, presumably Amber's dad, turned back to the plan written out on the wall.

"Amber. One more thing."

Amber halted at the door. "Yes?"

"You remember the rule. We need your brother alive. Let the plan play out. Stay. Out. Of. It."

Amber nodded, but knew she couldn't stay away from the nagging leading sense to move forward prematurely.

"Yes, father."

··-· ·- - -- ·- ·-· ·· --- ··-· ·- - -- ·- ·-· ·· --- 

Mario woke up and looked around. "Mamma Mia… Where has that wretched toad gone?!"

The world around him was grass, plants, many of them larger than him.

_What the heck?_

Mario stood up and saw a watch on the ground nearby.

"Teleport ready in: 30 hours. Nano-suit ready now."

Mario put on the watch and looked ahead. _I've gotta find my friends…_

For the next hour, Mario wandered aimlessly, trying to find a clue, or maybe just one of his friends.

"LUIGI! TOAD? PRINCESS?" is what Mario called out, (clearly forgetting a member,) badly hoping for an answer.

_Maybe I'm alone…_

Just then, Mario heard a sound. Something like footsteps.

Mario ran toward the footsteps, but nearly screamed when he saw who had been making them.

A large animal with two legs, no arms, many teeth, snail-like eyes, a bulbous, spotted behind, a pointy snout, and three miniature ones following it.

The creature stared directly at Mario, before releasing a large roar, it's breath smelling like a rotting corpse and it's many sharp teeth showing.

Mario fainted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Added lore/code  
> *Fixed some errors


	5. Alpha

·- ·-· · -·-- --- ··- ·-· · ·- -·· -·-- - --- -- · · - -- ·· ---- ·- · ·-·· ··--·· 

3 groaned. "I'm tired. Where are we going again?"

The captain sighed. "You should NOT be tired, I told you where we were going when we left, if you are so tired, DRIVE THE SHIP."

3 sat content.

"But if it really slips your mind, we are heading out to the special base where our superior is. Our superior is going to take the sub bomb and we are kinda behind on our… paycheck business. That's for me, you guys just deliver the bomb, be polite to Alpha- and DON'T DROP IT AGAIN, 3."

3 sat the bomb in Luigi's lap.

"Where are you going, Captain?"

The captain sighed. "It's complicated. Even though you three are mostly pros, I've gotta get the news about Alph to the secretary so that they can set up the watch. And also because I've gotta set things right about certain... paycheck problems…"

The crew was satisfied.

Soon, they reached a point where their destination was basically in front of them.

"Soo… what does this Alpha character look like?" 3 said, while toying with her shoelaces.

"Well, they always wear a mask that does this weird thing with their voice, so we don't know who they are. Don't think any author would like that cliche, but, given the circumstances, some valued readers like it."

The docking port for the ships was way more advanced than the one that our friends here had been trusted with.

The captain unstrapped himself and exited the ship, holding a folder of forms.

"You fellas just go down to the end of the hall, when the person asks for your names, IDs, give and tell them, when they ask about the purpose, hold up the bomb and they should know where to send you, say hi to Alpha for me."

The agents found themselves lost the instant the captain left.

"He said at the end of the hall. Which hall…?" 3 mumbled as she looked at the many ways they could go.

"This is a simple task. We can't just fail! Let's try… this one." Simon pointed toward the leftmost hall.

"Maybe this is not a good idea. We should ask for help. It just seems more logical to-"

Simon shut Luigi up instantly. "I think we went the wrong way."

_1 hour later…_

3 was now being dragged down the hall, Luigi was sick and tired, and Simon still walked with the same determination he had an hour ago.

"We are SO lost." Luigi groaned, while dragging a large orange squid across the tile flooring.

They sat down at the nearest waiting room, where Luigi sat 3 on the bench.

A woman walked in.

"Hello, do you have an appointment/scheduled meeting with Alpha?"

Simon's eyes grew wide. "Yes, we have something to drop off."

The lady looked at the group.

"You three seem very familiar. What are your names?"

"Well, we're-"

The lady cut in. "Hmm… are you Lucifer's team?"

" _YES. YES WE ARE."_ Simon said extremely hastily, as to not get interrupted again.

"Ok, I'll go and speak with Alpha."

The lady left.

"SO… we aren't lost?"

Simon looked directly at 3. "I mean, is there another Alpha? NO. Yes, we are NOT lost."

It took a while, but the lady eventually came back.

"Alpha will see you now. Follow me."

The lady led them through a long corridor. If she hadn't led them down the long path, they would probably have had to give up and go home.

Finally, the agents reached a room that was large, not an office, too big, but maybe a personal MUSEUM.

The walls were black and the room was dark, only illuminated by the blue light streaks running up the walls.

The lady reached the swivel chair in the middle of the room.

"Alpha, the visitors are here."

The chair in the middle of the room stopped spinning like a four year-old child in a local Ikea store.

"Their names?"

The lady said something, but Simon wasn't listening.

"...Ok… Where is their captain? I needed to talk to him about the… paycheck incident…"

The lady winced when he mentioned the paycheck incident. "Yes, he will be here shortly, it's just the members right now. The captain is setting down his case with the archive."

"I'll just mail it to him then. The right wing has a person waiting for my assistant, please escort them properly, I'll deal with the bomb situation."

The lady left, leaving the three alone with their superior.

Alpha stood and trotted over to them. He was a lot shorter than they thought. Luigi stood a few inches over him, 3 loomed over him.

Alpha wore a nice, black suit. The suit and tie were all black, just like his gloves and jeans. He wore jeans.

His jeans were rolled up a little near his socks, which were black, ditto his shoes.

The mask he wore covered his whole head, the face part being one-way mirrored glass.

3 got nervous just thinking about what impressive interior sat under that mask.

The masked man looked at them for a good five minutes, not speaking or making any major actions.

"I remember all of you. Especially Mr. L, over here."

Alpha stepped toward Luigi and shook his hand. "The last time I saw you was last year, when we discussed the Plasm Wraith situation."

Luigi took off his mask and hood. "Yes, that incident was… regrettable, to say the least."

Alpha walked over to Simon next. "I forget your name sometimes, to be honest, but we last saw each other…" Alpha took a moment to try and gather his thoughts, "I last saw you when I had given you the sword you own now… memories…"

Simon felt a bit of pride, as if almost fanboying, but he calmed himself before freaking out.

"And finally…"

3 did not notice that she was blushing, Alpha chuckled awkwardly.

"...what _IS_ your name…? Did.. did I ever actually write that down? I.. don't remember. A-anyway… I think we last encountered each other when I hired you… last year? Was it last year...? Anyway- umm… how are you…?"

3 felt an odd sense of excitement when Alpha spoke. Like he was a dad that had left for milk, finally returning.

Alpha gave up trying to get an answer when 3 just stared and smiled as her face got progressively redder.

_"My_ _goodness_... Gamma is what we're here to discuss. Meet me in the exam room."

The agents jumped back as Alpha went back to his chair and disappeared.

"Where'd he go?!" Simon said, frantically searching for their presumably disintegrated boss.

It took them about six minutes until they actually realized where he went.

"Guys… he's not in here."

They all took a moment to realize their stupidity and get going.

The walk to the exam room was a lot shorter than assumed. Just a turn and there it was.

They entered the room and saw Alpha poking a test mouse with a syringe, but he nonchalantly played it off and sat the syringe on the desk, as if he weren't doing something stupid.

"Oh, hey. I assume you three remember Janet, yes?"

Simon waved at the teen with white hair and green eyes.

"Yes, you do. Good… I cannot keep him here, due to routine… _gold checking…_ but he shouldn't be much of a burden for you guys to keep, right?"

Simon looked at everybody. "Excuse us for a minute."

The agents huddled together. "So… we're taking this guy home? Is he even-"

Alpha was in the huddle as well. "You're talking about me while I'm listening."

The agents panicked and moved back.

"Anyway, you ARE taking Mr. Janet here. No exceptions, he is coming with you. Look. He's a temporary agent. Your captain should want to see you soon, so take him and go."

Janet shrugged, staring directly at them.

"Look. You're going now, I'm taking the bomb and you can go now."

Simon felt very uneasy about the choice they were being forced to do.

"Fine. Screw it." Alpha tapped a button on his wrist band and then started messing with his mask, until it popped off.

"Now do you trust me?"

Simon fainted, due to pure pressure.. Luigi, two seconds later, fainted as well. 3 lasted until the five seconds passed, and then she fell over.

They woke up to the captain driving them away.

"Well, you delivered the bomb, got us a temporary new agent, and was found knocked out… What happened?"

Janet shot a steely glare and shook his head at the three.

"I don't know… maybe it was just pressure…?"

The captain grunted. "Huh… that isn't assuring, but okay…"

_··· -·-· ·- ·-· ··· . ···· · ···· ·- ··· ··· -·-· ·- ·-· ··· ._

_Meanwhile, at the Gamma base…_

Travis didn't come to work that day, from what Billy had been told. It didn't seem very funny, especially not when you were invited to meet the man that could fire you with no regrets and turned up missing.

"BILLY! Where is that green, homicidal sushi dinner?! You said he would be here!"

Billy slammed his desk. "AMBER, I SAID HE _MIGHT_ BE HERE!"

Twenty minutes passed.

Billy threw on his hood outfit and strutted to the travel pod they had.

Amber stopped him. "Where are YOU going?"

"Going to get my forgetful pal."

Billy, five minutes later, found himself travelling with Amber, who was wearing the hooded outfit and was driving.

"Ok. Inkling city. How did we manage to go through last time?"

Then it hit them. "Travis was with us."

Billy looked at the map. "Ok. You DO know how to read this, right?"

Amber nodded and sat down to read the map. "We know where to go, but it's, sadly, far from here. We're gonna have to-"

Billy backed into the corner. "NO. Don't freaking say it!"

"... we're gonna have to walk there."

Billy sighed. "What's the plan?"

Amber held the hood close and tightened her backpack strings. "You okay in there? There should be a chocolate bar stash in there somewhere."

"I hate this and Travis owes us BIG TIME." Grumbled Billy, who was ensconced inside of the backpack.

Amber took such words as a yes and started walking. "You have the GPS, so you're gonna have to make sure that I'm not-"

"You're going the wrong way."

Amber sighed and turned around.

_This is gonna be longer than I thought._

·-··-· ···· --- ·-- -·· ·· -·· -·-- --- ··- --· · - -- -·-- ·--· ·-·· ·- -· ··· ··--·· ·-··-· 

_Meanwhile, at Travis's house.._

The emerald squid leaned forward in his bed and looked at the wardrobe. "Let's see…"

Travis scrolled through the options. "Green, green, green…" From what was said, there was nothing but green sweaters in the wardrobe.

"Ooh! Light green!" Travis yanked a green sweater no different from the other sweaters and shoved it on.

Travis went downstairs and opened the fridge. _Hmm… what's for breakfast?_

Travis plucked out some leftovers and ate it as if he were in a hurry.

After an enjoyable breakfast, Travis went to the basement and cut on the light, which illuminated very little of the actual basement.

"Enjoying your stay?"

The new hostage in the basement, Marley, a red inkling with glasses and very neatly styled tentacles, blinked awake and looked at Travis. "Wh- what? Where am I?"

Travis picked up his trusty hunting knife(which, FYI, he has never cleaned,) and bent down near the chair Marley was tied to.

"Which should I rid you of first, your arms, or your legs?"

Marley looked at the knife and jerked and pulled, trying to escape and looking ultimately stupid whilst doing so.

"What are you doing there, buddy?"

Marley glared at Travis. "You know I'm with the government, you imbecile!"

Travis nearly had a fit of hysterics. "Your government is run by two incognizant imbeciles with deteriorating minds and bewitching good looks that they are known for, not for literally anything else. To be honest… that is how our government has been since I was alive, which was 24 years ago, so you're stuck working for good-looking idiots with no sense of music, just talking really fast to a rhythm. Uncreative."

Marley felt insulted. "HOW _DARE_ YOU?!"

Travis kicked Marley's leg. "Shut up right now, before the musical idiots find their governmental chief in pieces."

"There's more to the government than just those two, you know! I would know, I'm actually-"

Travis jammed the knife beside Marley's hand.

"Can it."

Marley shut up, but didn't stop trying to escape.

Travis left the basement, not interested in trying anything that day.

···· ·- ···· ·- ··-· ··- -· -· -·-- -- ·- ·-· ·-·· · -·-- -· · -·-· -·- --· --- ··· -· ·- ·--· 

Amber held her hood and kept walking, even though the 75-pound toad in the backpack wouldn't shut his facial orifice for two seconds.

"You're going the wrong way. No, not that way. MY left, not yours."

Amber felt angry, but had to keep it together. You cannot give yourself away in a plaza full of walking squid.

"Can you speak inklish? I can't."

Amber elbowed the bag and heard a small yelp.

_That'll shut him up for a while._

Amber, in her small moment of peace, did not watch where she was headed and slammed into someone.

"Sorry-"

The inkling whom Amber slammed into started saying things to which she couldn't understand.

_Shoot…_

Billy mumbled a sarcastic comment which Amber could not hear.

Another inkling approached, speaking as if they were asking something.

Amber was now surrounded. A crowd took two minutes, but Amber was surrounded.

_CRAP._

Just then, Billy said something as his radar picked up a familiar signal.

Amber cursed in Latin, before turning and darting in the opposite direction.

_Travis is getting his pay docked for this adventure!_

Travis nearly jumped into his squid form when his radar started beeping loudly.

_Billy?!_

Amber slammed directly into Travis. "Oh, there you are-"

Travis yanked Amber out of sight.

"What in the name of Cod are you doing here?"

Amber sighed. "Thickhead wanted to see you."

Billy unzipped the backpack and jumped out.

"Oh, there you are! I didn't know you have been skipping days on me! We didn't miss an important meeting, or anything like that."

Travis frowned. "That was sarcastic-"

"OF COURSE IT WAS! I may have missed out on a raise because you didn't show up!"

"That was today?"

Billy and the others heard upcoming chatter and Billy hopped back inside of Amber's backpack.

"This is a strain on my shoulders. The pod is far away and I hate carrying your friend here, so… where do you live… exactly?"

Travis sighed. "Follow me- and stay quiet. The last thing I want is to have to create another fake identity."

The inside of Travis's house was neat, smelled like wet paint, and was extremely cold.

"Your house smells bad." Billy said, waving his hand in such attempts to blow away the smell.

"Where's the victims? The murdered souls? I did NOT expect this."

Travis sighed. "I like a clean environment. This means that I actually dispose of the bodies. There IS, however, a hostage in the basement."

Billy was already running to the basement.

"How long do you guys plan on staying here?"

Amber sat down on the soft sofa. "I won't be here long, the pod is just out there, sitting like a ball floating away in a lake, but it's not in a lake."

Travis shrugged. "Well, I'll just-"

The sentence was rudely interrupted by a scream from the basement.

"Billy is having fun."

"Yup."

·-··-· ··-· ·- - ···· · ·-· --··-- ·· ··· - ···· ·· ··· - ·-· ··- · ··--·· ·-··-· 

Bowser groggily stood. "Ohhh… my everything aches."

The king looked around. Lush greenery surrounded him.

"Huh. Where am I?"

The world was full of large plants and animals, some weird and wacky. Bowser stopped and gasped.

Mario, the red clad Italian hero who had beaten Bowser over 20 times, was on the floor, knocked out, while a large creature roared and reared to bite.

Bowser ran up and punched the creature in its snout, knocking it back.

The creature roared and ran at Bowser. Bowser kicked the large creature and picked up Mario.

_Gotta get him outta here before more beasts arrive._

Bowser sat Mario up nearby and slammed his fist into the creature.

"Back up, tubby!"

The creature roared and Bowser took a deep breath.

The creature fried and became a pile of ashes as Bowser blasted it with a large wave of fire.

The ashes moved a little, and a soul slowly ascended upward.

Bowser sighed and looked at Mario.

"I hope that you know where we are, bub."

Just then, a green streak flew by, hitting the nearest bush.

"AAH!"

Bowser readied his fists again, but calmed himself when he saw that it was just a scared Luigi.

"Oh, finally. Someone to talk to-"

Luigi threw on gloves, as if he were hiding something.

"Aah! Bowser! Don't scare me like that!"

_What was on his hand?_ Bowser quickly snapped back into reality and gestured.

"Let's go. Your brother has some explaining to do."

Luigi fastened his gloves and nodded. "Ok. Do you know where we are?"

"No. Do you?"

Luigi shrugged. "Nope. Do you know where the princess is?"

"Normally, yes. Right now? No."

They sat down and waited for Mario to wake up.

"What has my bro gotten us into?"

_·-··-· --- ··-· -·-· --- ··- ·-· ··· · -· --- - --··-- -- ·· ---- ·- · ·-·· ! ·-··-·_

_30 minutes earlier…_

Double Luigi stood from the ground, which he had landed on. "Ow… my back…"

Luigi stood up and looked around. "What was that?"

A large rumble ensued, and a creature with the neck of a snake, but the head of a bird came out of the ground. _Burrowing Snagret…_

The large bird lashed forward with it's head, and Luigi tried to block it with his hand. Luigi yelped in pain as it grabbed his entire arm and hoisted him up into the air.

The creature had Luigi by the arm, but Luigi flailed and kicked, as to avoid becoming lunch.

Finally, after wrestling for what seemed like hours, Luigi got his arm free and ran away, as fast as he could.

Luigi dashed until he reached a few bushes, where he pulled his gloves from his overall pockets, looking at the wounds he had gotten from that little encounter.

_Don't let them know that you are a clone, Mario will go mad!_

Bowser peeked his head in the bush right as Luigi had his other glove on.

"Oh, finally, someone to talk to-"

Luigi screamed.

"Bowser! Don't scare me like that!"

_Just play it off, Luigi. No one has to know._

\-- ·-· . ·--- ··- -- ·--· ··· ·- ·-·· ·-·· - ···· · - ·· -- · 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Added code  
> *Added and deleted lines of unneeded dialogue  
> * T R A V I S


	6. Taking A Real Beating

Travis had taken Billy and Amber back to the base, after the hype of seen humans in Inkopolis had died down, of course.

Travis had come back and finally clocked in and sat down in his little office reciprocal.

The picture on his desk, taken when he was 14, when he had just gained humanlike features.

Travis was standing in front of his parents and 4 siblings. He was wearing his dad's blue sweater. He had inherited both side's colors, his mom's bright yellow, and his dad's dark blue. That's where he got the emerald color from.

The boss hadn't assigned anyone anything, since he was off planning their meeting with their superior. Travis was now extremely bored. Nothing new had happened, not in his job. He couldn't contact his family, reception didn't reach coffins, especially not filled ones.

Travis leaned his head back and looked at the ceiling. He felt his eyelids drooping. Two minutes later, he was soundly asleep.

* ···· ·- ··· ·- -· · -·· --· -·-- ··-· ·-·· ·- ··· ···· -··· ·- -·-· -·- *

_14-year old Travis looked at his fellow siblings. He was the only green one out of all of them. They were either yellow, or blue._

_Travis was in the middle of them, while they laughed. He had never felt as if laughing at someone was good especially when you are the one in the middle of it. This was the third time that day._

_While it did seem mean, them laughing at him, it was worse when his own parents and relatives joined in. He felt such anger that night. During his sleep, something snapped. He felt a nerve go off. All of a sudden, nothing he saw was right. They all called him things and separated him from everyone else._

_He realized something as quick as he snapped._

_They don't love me. So I won't love them either._

_In the middle of the night, Travis walked out of bed and went to the closet._

_His parents came out shortly after._

_"What do you think you're-"_

_His dad shut up when Travis shot him in the mouth with the yellow ink loaded gun in the closet._

_His mom tried to grab the gun, only getting a few inches ahead before he cocked and fired the blue one, creating a very large blue and yellow mess._

_"Hey, Travis! What are you-"_

_Travis dropped the empty guns and ran._

_They all chased until the first kid went around a corner and fell over with a slit in his neck._

_"WOAH-"_

_Travis kicked the next one over and quickly stabbed them. They screamed, but he didn't kill them. Just stabbed them and walked away, to let them die in peace._

_Travis watched as his 2 brothers and 1 sister started running for their lives._

_They all hid. Travis knew exactly where they were, but didn't open the door. Instead, he cleaned himself up,_

_Travis then pushed open the door and tossed a curling bomb inside._

_They stopped screaming when they blew up._

_Travis exited the house, not a single drop of residue on his nice, emerald sweater._

_···· --- ·-- -- ··- ---- ·-- --- --- -·· -·-· ·- -· ·- ·-- --- --- -·· ---- ··- -·-· -·- ---- ··- -·-· -·- ·· ··-· ·- ·-- --- --- -·· ---- ··- -·-· -·- -·-· --- ··- ·-·· -·· ---- ··- -·-· -·- ·-- --- --- -·· ··--··_

Travis woke to a little hand shaking him awake.

"Hey, buddy. Boss says that the way should be open to Omega's pocket dimension, if you want to go now. Amber's getting impatient." Billy said, patting a tired Travis on the back.

Travis stood up and stretched. The green toad in his room looked at the little picture.

"Is that you? You were an adorable child."

Travis looked at the picture. "That? No, not really."

Billy shrugged. "I dunno, toad children are…" Billy frowned. "Not as amusing as Inkling preteens."

Travis shrugged. "Maybe it's a species thing…"

Billy looked at the picture again. "If I could trade this measly toad body for your amazing stature, I would definitely do so…"

Travis felt weird after Billy said that. "I can't trade bodies, but you're smart, you'll find something, I'm sure. Now, come on. We gotta go now."

Billy and Travis made their way down the hall until they found Amber, who was in the portal room.

"Oh, there you are. Omega wants to see you. He also says to bring the prisoner."

Billy left to get Alph.

Amber and Travis sat down and waited.

"So… is it true that you only have one immediate family member left?"

Travis shrugged. "My dad adopted, so… no, not exactly. She's still alive because of mercy. Haven't seen her face for 8 years."

Amber shrugged. "I have my dad. My brother is dead to me. I just wish that my dad would let him go…"

Travis frowned. "Your brother's dead?"

"No. He ditched me and became an MVP. Some say he made the corporation. Nobody knows."

Travis looked up from the floor. "I've but two lifelong friends. That's Billy and someone else."

"I have my dad. You guys are gonna meet him soon. I had my brother. He was touchy about multiversal domination. He took the super weapon we had taken so long to make together, and ran away. We liked to call each other Greek names. I was Delta. Dad is the one we all know as Omega."

Travis waited for her to say the last name, but Billy returned with Alph. "Oh HI guys, I'm back. We goin' now?"

The portal led to a small room with five other portals, otherwise known as the other Gamma bases.

Amber led them out to the hall and started talking with the guards outside.

"Is Omega open right now?"

"He just got done tracking the next MVP ship. Headed right for us. Dunno what genius idea pops in his head this time, but we're on the verge of action. Anyway, your dad's open now. Might wanna see him soon."

Amber thanked him and they walked away. The guard took Alph away and the three kept walking.

Amber pushed open the large doors at the end of the hall. A large, neatly decorated room awaited them.

The man in the middle, having messy brown hair and wearing a green hoodie with a purple 𝝮 on the back.

He was standing over a large table with a screen on it. A red dot was moving across it. The red dot seemed to represent a MVP ship, which was closing in very fast now.

The man turned around. "Ah, Delta. Welcome back! I see you've brought me the two I asked for."

Travis and Billy waved.

"You may refer to me as Omega. That, or just Merryl. Either one, it does NOT matter. We're being hunted actively by this _BLASTED_ ship that won't accept their comms being jammed. I had something to give you boys, but I can't shake this darned ship off of our signal."

Billy looked at the table. "Are you sure that it's a ship? If it were a ship, it'd be here by now. My guess is that it's a decoy."

Omega looked to the small toad by his screen table. "Why would a decoy be here? They have no reason to-"

A guard ran in, panting heavily and clearly impatient. "Boss, we have a problem!"

"What is it this time? Coffee machine created a black hole again?"

"No, a security breach! There's four MVPs, and they're flanking us!"

"Are they in?"

The guard started mumbling things to himself.

"I SAID, ARE. THEY. IN."

"Y-... yessir."

Omega sighed and tapped a button on the screen table. Alarms went off and Travis found himself being dragged down the hall by Omega and Amber.

They reached a room with a bunch of gadgets and weapons lying around.

"I was waiting to give you guys these, but it's about time they came to use."

Amber was handed a direct replica of the Monado. How it came to be, no one knew, or bothered to find out.

Billy was handed a weird chrome plate. It fastened itself to his back. He turned to see two large, robotic arms now on his back. Billy nearly yelled in happiness, but he was quickly shushed.

Omega picked up a jar lying in the corner. "Open the jar and claim the power inside of it. PSI. Known by few, used by many. Take it."

Travis tok the jar from Omega's hand and felt the energy emanating from it.

Travis slid the jar open and dropped it. Something was awakening inside of him.

Almost as if no time had passed, Travis was back in the room.

"Huh… that was… anticlimactic…" Billy mumbled.

Travis twirled the sparkles around his finger as he played with the straight power that had just entered his body.

Billy handed the uniform to Travis, wearing his own as well.

"Now that you two are suited up, the intruders shouldn't be a problem. Go now. Don't fail me, that's highly illegal."

_\- ···· · ··· ···· --- ·-- -·· --- ·-- -· --- ··-· - ···· · -·-· · -· - ··- ·-· -·--_

_Meanwhile, not far from their base..._

Luigi laughed as he drove the tiny ship drone into the Gamma base. "Look at them. They've fallen for a trap! This is the third time that they've tried to jam the comms and attack."

The captain sighed. "L, please don't play cat and mouse with the drone, we NEED that."

"Hey, guys? We're about to hit a-"

3 was seconds late to announcing that they were headed right into the shielded part of the base.

They jerked forward and Luigi nearly flew out of his seat.

"OK. We have to manage on foot now, because we've tripped the alarms."

3, Simon, and Luigi all sighed at the same time.

"What? You don't pay for ship repairs!"

They got their weapons and hopped out of the stalled ship.

"So, what are we looking for?" 3 asked.

"Either Alph, or something that could help us with the Gamma case-"

They looked forward and saw the guards running at them.

"Spread out."

They all ran in opposite directions and attacked from there.

The guards were soon a pile of knocked out men on the floor.

Another person ran in. They had a purple Monado replica. They attacked Simon, who was just fast enough to draw his sword and not get his head brutally cut off.

Just as the captain tried to help, a toad with two sets of arms, one his normal arms, the other, large, mechanical arms, grabbed his hammer and chucked it across the room.

3 and L tried to help, but a third figure popped in behind them and blasted them both forward with a blast of fire.

Simon swiped and slashed at the person attacking him. They kept moving out of the way and striking harder. He tried again, but they knocked away his sword. He blanched as he started dodging repeated sword swings.

The captain was sadly trying to grab his weapon, but the toad attacking him kept throwing him everywhere and punching him with those metal arms. Finally, he stopped being thrown around like a ragdoll and was being held upside down by one of the large arms.

L shot an electric beam, the man just shook it off and hit L with an ice attack, sending him flying. 3 jumped on his back, but he pressed his hands together and a bolt of lightning struck them both. The man was unharmed, but 3 had been knocked off and was now on the floor. Neither 3 nor L had the energy or self-esteem to stand up and keep going.

Simon looked around. _It's over._

He raised his arms in submission and lowered his head in shame.

The three on the opposite side started moving the agents to cells. Simon was guided to a cell, the captain was carried, and 3 and L were dragged.

-· · ···- · ·-· --· --- -· -· ·- -- ·- -·- · -·-- --- ··- -·-· ·-· -·-- 

3 woke up to Alph poking her face. "Wake up please… I don't know what I'd do if you were dead, so please wake up now!"

3 slowly opened her droopy eyelids and saw the little Koppaite standing in front of her.

"OH MY GOSH, YOU'RE NOT DEAD!"

3 sighed and nodded. "Yeah, I'm… alive." She managed to weakly mutter.

"Yeah, you really took a beating, from the looks of it. I had to fix you up because they wouldn't. You had jacked up your arm pretty bad. Your chest was highly bruised. You had better be glad that you aren't dead. I am…"

3 noticed the bandages wrapped around her chest and right arm.

"Thanks…"

Alph patted her on the head and walked to her bag on the other side of the room.

"Thank the Koppaite lords that you had that medical bag. If not, you may have died here."

3 sighed again. "How long was I out?"

Alph was the one sighing this time. "You were presumably dead for about…" He stopped to do the unwanted math and then continued. "Since you were brought in here… an entire day."

"Since I was brought in here? I was basically dead for a whole day?"

Alph shook his head. "No, no no…. Not dead, just… schrodinger's cat?"

3 had no idea why there was a cat named schrodinger, but it was not important now.

"We need to get out of here. NOW."

Alph stopped 3 from getting up. "No, don't do that. You're still missing a lot of… _inkling blood_ … and nothing is stopping them from hurting us worse. Rest. Don't overwork yourself."

3 sat down and looked around. "Where's the others? L? Simon?"

Alph shrugged. "They weren't even in here. I think they're in a different cell."

The door opened, and the toad whom had jacked up the captain walked in, a devilish smile on his face. 3 scowled and resisted the urge to crush his little skull inward.

"Ah! You're awake! You and Mr. Tall Mustache were beaten up pretty bad. Nearly had to chuck you out of the garbage disposal. _Would've been nice to have…_ "

3 and Alph sat there, clearly not amused.

"Whats with the looks, eh? Neither of you are strong enough to stop me, and you're my prisoners. Maybe you should have rethought going in here without the whole posse. Aaanyway, who likes Russian Roulette? I know I do. 12 times, undefeated. Poor fools who tried to challenge me got their heads blown off."

3 remained in a nasty scowl.

"Oh, don't worry, it's approved. I can play with the lab rats."

Some of the guards took 3 and Alph into a room with a singular ceiling light and a table. A large gun was on the table.

Billy tapped the control panel on the side of the laser gun. "For the max experience, you set it to random fire. No one knows when their life is in danger!"

He handed the gun to Alph. "Why don't YOU start?"

Alph sighed. _Why did I get this job?_

3 was looking at the gun with an intense focus. Something wasn't right.

Alph noticed her glancing toward the light. Billy started impatiently tapping the table.

3 weakly pointed to the light.

Alph, almost immediately, pointed up and pulled the trigger. The gun blasted out the little ceiling light, causing them to be immersed in darkness.

Alph felt his body get lifted and hoisted out of the room. 3, who was now carrying Alph, was limping and about to collapse.

Alph squirmed out of her grasp and sighed. "3, you can't DO things like that. We're good as DEAD now. Just hope tha-"

Alph turned and saw Simon, now with 3 over his shoulders and the captain in his arms. He motioned to Alph to be quiet.

"WHERE'D THEY GO?!"

"I-i don't know, we were all in the same room!"

" _Complaining isn't gonna get you anywhere, now is it, thickhead?_ "

"I'll go look then."

Simon looked to Alph and whispered. "We need to find L before we leave."

Just then, a loud explosion sounded from the parking bay.

"SECURITY BREACH! ALL HANDS ON DECK, PARKING BAY, NOW!"

Simon grabbed Alph's hand and ran down the hall.

They reached a glass cell, where an unconscious L lay.

Simon pulled out a stolen keycard and opened the glass.

"I can't carry all of you! Someone will have to walk-"

3 hopped off of Simon's shoulders. "I'm fine. Get L."

Simon picked up L and looked around. "The whole crew's here. Stay quiet."

Simon ran till he found their ship. It was still in the dock, but there were guards there.

Simon turned around and Alpha was now standing behind him. "Hey, kid. You guys did us good by going here, as stupid as that was."

Simon sat L on the floor. "What?"

"We tracked your ship. Though you did this really stupid deed, We're here to get this place under control. I just wanted to see if you fellas were okay. It seems as if I were right, you aren't."

The guards in the background were steadily dying because of the MVP army Alpha had brought with him.

·-- ···· ·- - -·· --- -·-- --- ··- -- · ·- -· ·· -·· ·· -·· -· ·----· - -- · -· - ·· --- -· -- ·· ---- ·- · ·-·· ·· -· - ···· ·· ··· ---- ·- ·--· - · ·-· ··--·· 

Travis grabbed Billy and Amber and jumped back into the portal to their base. They all had tried to escape the guards WITH Omega, but he was caught and taken away.

They toppled out of the portal and looked at each other. "Omega is gone. Who's gonna lead?"

Amber stood tall.

"I'm next in line for that position. If he's done, I'm the new Omega. He was gonna tell you two about the Ultra league. You, me and Billy were gonna be that group. Now, we are that group. Now, first order of business. Billy. Where'd you dump Mario? We're going to do some persuasion."

-·-- ·-· ··- --· ·- · 

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *slight chapter name tweaks  
> *Added lore/code


	7. Broken and Promises

The agents sat on the couch, battle worn and low on hopes. They hadn't held out well since their loss/victory with Gamma. Still, L was asleep for everything and had broken his arm, but was fine now. The captain would NOT say any more than what he wants for breakfast and what Alpha says to them.

Simon and Alph had to run everything while their friends acted off their games all day.

Simon sat down and sighed. _Keeping three weak crew members in check is exhausting._

Simon nearly flinched when 3 arrived and sat down in the lounge chair nearby. She repeatedly looked around the room, as if trying not to maintain eye contact.

Simon cut on the TV that they never used.

Blasting news reports about lots of different things involving Gamma and MVP sightings came on, so Simon shut off the TV.

Simon DID flinch when Alph appeared beside him. "Tired?"

Simon shrugged. "No, not really. I'm bored. Nothing we have done anytime soon was actually fun. All I've been is cramped in with, no offense, boring people."

Alph seemed as if he hadn't taken that offensively, but 3 reacted differently. Simon hadn't even known that she was listening in the first place.

"Boring…?" 3 stopped looking around the room to give a cold stare in Simon's direction.

"I'm sorry if it seems boring, but I need to regain mental health from an incident where I nearly DIED and then have to rely on someone to carry me for the rest of my time on this ship, because I'm, " _boring_ ""

Simon felt the awkwardness spread when the captain walked in. Simon ignored him until he sat on the opposite side of Alph. The captain cleared his little toad voice, and then spoke as if he were all of a sudden back to normal.

"Alpha has given me the okay to send you all home for 1 week. Whether you want to go home is up to you. A break to see your families and whatnot. You can leave at any time, just be back by Wednesday-"

3 instantly got up and went to her room. The captain sighed and turned to Simon.

"You guys have taken a simple loss worse than I thought. It's as if you had your pride stepped on. 3's not herself anymore. Neither is L. Both of them have given up. Don't try to interfere with them, it'll only worsen their conditions. Let them be."

Simon and Alph went to bed, the captain following shortly after.

They heard the portals being operated during the night. When they all woke up, 3 was gone. She had taken her stuff and left.

·-- ···· --- ·----· ··· -·-· ·- ·-·· ·-·· ·· -· --· --- ··- - - --- -·-- --- ··- ··--·· -··· --- - ···· --- ··-· ··- ··· ! ·-·· ·· ··· - · -· !

3 had a problem with places to live and stay at. It was a problem she couldn't slip away from. Her job would only provide so much before she was stuck homeless again.

She had made an ultimate decision of finding a place to stay that was free. Luck was not turning her way until she slammed into the "friendly" green-haired folk from earlier.

Travis stumbled backward, before looking 3 in the eye. "Oh, hey. Haven't seen you around here in… a few months now. Work must have been horrible."

3 sighed. "Yeah…"

Travis squinted. "You're not okay, I can already see it now, something's wrong, what is it?"

"N-no.. I'm fine-"

"No. You are not fine. If you were fine, I'd be listening to how your philosophy of life is the most polite."

3 frowned. "It is."

"Oh, are you okay now?"

"No."

Travis laughed. "HA! I made you admit it!"

_Sometimes, you can be such an idiot._

"I'm just not very happy today. That's all."

"That's not true. I can guess that from a mile away. What's _actually_ wrong?"

After a long, awkward, silence, 3 finally spoke.

"I have nowhere to live, I have none but one friend and am facing aches all over my body."

Travis frowned. " _Huh._ Wasn't expecting THAT, but okay."

Travis started thinking, before 3 interrupted. _She's gonna ask if she-_

"Do… do you mind if I stayed with you?"

Travis took a small moment to try and come up with an excuse to say no, but failed. "You have nowhere to stay.. At all? Like, nowhere?"

"Only for a week. Weren't those reservations you got for this week anyway?"

"Let's just go. I have to be somewhere soon."

3 followed Travis for a little bit.

_-·-· ·- -· -·-- --- ··- ···· · ·- ·-· -- · ··--··_

_Meanwhile..._

Luigi was somewhat happy to return home, see his brother again and whatnot.

Luigi went home, but something was different. Normally, there would be toads happily greeting him as he walked by. Now, the toads barely even acknowledged him. They were looking for something.

Luigi went up to the closest toad. "Hey, what's going on?"

"Luigi? You're back?"

_How did they know I was gone?_

"Yeah… I'm back…?"

"You, Mario, Bowser, Toad, and the princess all disappeared!"

Luigi started panicking. _What's happened to Mario?_

"What was he doing last?"

The toad frowned. "You would know, Luigi, you were there last."

_I was?_

Luigi quickly realized. _The clone? Where is he?_

Without saying anymore, he ran toward their house.

Luigi kicked open the door and looked around the house. Indeed, it was true. Mario was gone.

Luigi ran back into town and into the castle. Toadsworth was there.

"Master Luigi! You've returned! I presume Master Mario and the princess are with you?"

"N-no… it's just me."

Toadsworth didn't seem happy at that. "You disappeared with Mario. How do you not know where he went?"

Luigi had no idea what to say. He had been gone for about two months now, and Mario had gotten into trouble!

"Listen, this is very important, where was the princess headed before Mario's house?"

"She mentioned some toad who's name we haven't in record. He lived on the outskirts, if it helps."

Toadsworth ordered the guard toads to leave and shut the doors. After they made sure that they were alone, Toadsworth spoke.

"Luigi, when you finally joined the MultiVerse Protection Services, I thought that such a fact would assure our safety. Now, it is what we are forced to depend on. Where is Mario?"

"The clone of me must be with him now. Mario got curious and tried to search for the MVPs, and must have gotten himself into trouble."

Toadsworth sighed. "Ok. I will try to hold the kingdom together while you find Mario. We depend on you now, Luigi."

Luigi sighed. "That's not exactly… assuring."

"Not for us, or you."

Toadsworth and Luigi went their ways. Luigi went home.

Luigi sat in bed, wandering through his thoughts. _What has Mario done?_

_-·· --- -·-- --- ··- -··· · ·-·· ·· · ···- · ·· -· ·· -- -- --- ·-· - ·- ·-·· ·· - -·-- ··--··_

_Meanwhile, again…_

Mario, Bowser, and Luigi walked down the desert terrain it had taken three days of walking to find.

"Where are we going? We haven't found the princess or Toad!" Luigi complained.

"I'm on your side and still searching for her. What a turn of events…" Bowser mumbled.

"Guys, we're almost there, I can feel it!" Mario said, confidence sparkling off of him.

"I think that's the smoldering heat you're feeling, Mario. There's been no sign of-"

Luigi stopped talking to try to see the pink figure lying in the desert.

" _Or not._ "

Mario darted away, his non-lack of energy surprising, given they had just walked for three days.

"Finally, the princess! Maybe she knows where we are-"

Mario screamed as Toad swung a stick and slammed his kneecaps.

"HA! I gotcha- _oh no…_ "

Bowser stroked his chin. "Should I be satisfied or empathetic? I want to laugh, but it feels cruel."

Toad shrugged. "He's been hit with straight fire before. I think he's fine, but look! The princess is here! I found her yesterday, some weird beast was about to do something bad, so I attacked. She's been asleep since. I wonder when she'll wake."

Mario hopped up. " _IT'S MARIO TIME._ Time to kiss a princess."

Luigi quickly interfered. "That's a terrible idea. That only works in fairy tales!"

"You're standing with a walking mushroom and a large, fire-breathing turtle, in the middle of a desert."

Luigi frowned. "Good point, but we don't know what's wrong with her. She could be sick! Would you want to contract a disease from lip contact?"

Mario licked his lips. " _Anything for the princess…_ "

Luigi resisted the urge to throw up and left Mario to it.

They all watched Mario near the princess.

"OK, OK, that's enough, maybe there's a better solution to this." Yelled Toad, while pushing away Mario.

" _I don't know any better way than to-_ "

"Can you stop speaking like you're a child stalker?"

Mario sighed. "Fine. I guess we'll just wait for her to wake up. In the meantime, I will carry her."

Mario scooped up the princess and they started walking again.

During their walk, Luigi fiddled with his glove, Toad straightened the large stick he carried, Bowser glanced toward Luigi, wondering what was going on with him.

They reached a little cave, where they sat down and rested for a bit.

"Do you think that the toad that put us here was an MVP?"

They all thought about it for a moment. "He couldn't have been an MVP. MVPs work for the good of the universe. He couldn't have been one."

"Then what was he?

Bowser snorted. "A toad, obviously."

Mario looked at Bowser, a twinge of annoyance nagging at him.

Luigi stood. "If he were an MVP, he would have a good reason to have acted like that."

"What? If he were an MVP, he wouldn't have dumped us on an alien planet!"

Luigi sighed. "Maybe he wanted you to stop? You know it was kinda wrong to shove a bag over his head and kidnap him."

Mario stood as well. "Well, we wouldn't have proof they existed if we hadn't."

Luigi realized what he was doing. "W-well… uh… maybe he had a family to provide for?"

"No, that isn't true. You remember, we asked around town and nobody knew him! He was already suspicious anyway!"

"Yes, but some people don't enjoy delinquents in their houses, searching for things!"

Toad frowned. "Wait… You're callin' us delinquents?"

"N-no, but-"

Bowser snarled. "No need to deny it now, you've already done it!"

Luigi fidgeted with his fingers. "I didn't mean it that way, I meant that you were barging in on his property and he was probably mad at you!"

Mario frowned. "He called me stupid."

"Well- uhh... "

Toad stepped forward. "Yeah, he called us stupid! Why are you protecting him?"

"No, I'm not trying to protect him, I-"

Mario stiffened his brow. "You just said that he dumped us here because of me, so, yeah, you are."

"I'm not protecting him, I'm protecting YOU!"

"I've gone through a lot, Luigi, I don't need protection!" Mario's voice had escalated to a shout.

"What are you even protecting him from? I mean, we're kinda unstoppable together." Bowser said, unaware that he was calmly speaking in the middle of an argument.

"I'm protecting you from everything! If you join the MVPs, you'd be leaving the kingdom, the entire universe! And just to look cool! You could die out there!"

Mario sighed, angrily. "I told you, Luigi, I don't need protection. You are acting like I'm a child. I am not a child, and I am not stupid."

"Luigi… Mario… are you okay?" Toad asked.

"NO! I'm not okay! Mario wants to risk his life, we only get ONE Mario! If he goes out and does this, he could DIE! Does anyone actually care about him?"

Mario sighed. "Maybe you being skeptical is why nobody cares about _you_."

Luigi was taken aback. "We are no longer brothers!"

"So be it!"

Luigi stormed out of the cave. Mario grunted and sat down beside the sleeping princess.

_15 minutes later…_

The princess was still asleep, Luigi hung by the cave, probably scared to leave alone, Toad and Bowser just hung out inside of the cave. A large rumble ensued. The three ran out to see a portal opened nearby.

The green toad from earlier, Billy, had just come out. "OH finally! Do you know how long it took to find you knuckleheads?!"

Mario scowled. "What do YOU want?"

"Well, I have come with an offer. It includes escaping this horrible place. You could come and join my side, escape this place, and make it home again. Safe as can be."

Mario thought about it for a second. Toad and Bowser were about to go, until Mario stopped them.

"Guys, stop. What's the catch to this… 'deal'?"

Billy laughed a little. "It- uhh… screws over your chances of getting to be or meeting any MVPs. But you'd be home, soooo…"

Mario was about to say something, but Luigi cut in. "It doesn't matter what Mario thinks." He said. "I'm going. It's up to you if you want to stay, but I'm leaving."

Luigi walked into the portal behind Billy. "Okay! Cool! Anyone else want to go home?"

Mario, Bowser, and Toad huddled together. "Luigi's gone. I don't trust the toad."

"Yes, but we'd be going HOME! It's a hard choice."

"His sentence was very clever, but I'm not fooled. He said 'join my side' meaning that we'd be on the bad side."

"Then YOU make the choice. Home, or loyalty?"

Mario exited the huddle and looked at Billy. "I'm not taking your filthy trick. You tell the MVPs that Mario's on their side."

Billy's countenance switched almost instantly. "Have it your way."

Billy stepped back through the portal and shut it.

Toad and Bowser looked to Mario. Bowser sighed. "If it were the right choice, let it be done that King Bowser Koopa died doing the right choice."

They all went back to the cave and waited for Peach to wake up, wondering if the right choice was necessary.

·-- --- ··- ·-·· -·· -·-- --- ··- -·-· ·- ·-·· ·-·· ·· - ·- --· ·· ··-· - ··-· ·-· --- -- --· --- -·· ··--·· 

_At the Gamma base…_

Amber sighed. "Where is Mario? I asked for Mario, not some green guy!"

Billy frowned. "I searched for a long time for this, he's the best I could find, Mario refused to come with me!"

"Then you should have MADE him come with you! But it's fine, Mr. L will do. Go and get him situated.

Billy led Luigi to the gear room. "You could design an outfit using my favorite invention, or just… rock the overalls 24/7. Whatever you wanna do, greenie."

Luigi came out with a very stylish, black and green outfit. He had a bandana around his neck and his hat was black, with the green L backwards.

"I meant to ask you," said Billy, near the door. "You are a Luigi clone, right? I mean, it's kinda obvious."

"Yes. I am a fragment of Luigi. He made me to keep Mario safe while he left to do things. I actually don't know what he went to do. I thought he was looking for the MVPs himself. Dunno where he is now."

Billy smirked. "What about a nickname, eh? What would you like for us to call you?"

"My name is no longer Luigi. I am Mr. L!"

Billy shrugged. "Seems like a cool name to me. Ok, Mr. L. Welcome to the club!"

"What about going home?"

Billy pointed to the room at the end of the hall. "There is a portal to everywhere we live. One to the mushroom kingdom, one to Inkopolis, one to everywhere. I've been working on ones like the Fire Emblem one. You and me should visit there someday. Seems like a fun place." 

Mr. L frowned. "How many of you are there?"

Travis passed by. Mr. L stared in curiosity.

"So… I could just go into one of the portals…"

"And you would be in another world, yes."

Mr. L started following Travis. "So… are those tentacles your hair?"

Travis cussed in Inklish and walked faster.

Billy ran up and stopped him. "Hehe… he doesn't speak human languages very well. Just… don't touch his sweater. He WILL kill you."

L smirked. "So… you're up for multiversal domination, right?"

"Yup! That's our goal, here at Gamma."

"Then I'm taking over the Mushroom Kingdom. You guys will help me, right?"

Billy thought about it for a minute. "That task is not possible now, but you should grab something from the gear room that might help you."

L left and came back with a deadly smile and electric sparks at his fingertips.

"Nobody wanted the magic jar, right?"

\-- ·-· . ·--- ··- -- ·--· ··· ·- ·-·· ·-·· - ···· · - ·· -- · 

_In the mushroom kingdom, 30 minutes later…_

"Luigi, you're dressed funny…"

"What's wrong, Luigi?"

"Luigi, are you okay?"

"Who's the green Mario?"

The toads wouldn't stop talking about Mr. L's clothing. He didn't care, he wanted to speak with the current leader of the mushroom kingdom.

Toadsworth smiled when he saw L.

"Ah! Master Luigi! Good to see you again, and, must I compliment the clothing, it looks nice. Have you the whereabouts of Master Mario?"

L shot Toadsworth with a beam of lightning.

The guards gasped, but they too screamed and shook in pain as they too, were shocked.

L walked out to the street, holding a limp Toadsworth. "Listen up, pillow-heads! I'm the new king of this kingdom, you do as I say, or else! Ya got that?!"

·· - ·· ··· -- -·-- -·-· ··- ·-· ··· · 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *added code  
> * -·-· ·- -· -·-- --- ··- ···· · ·- ·-· -- · ··--··


	8. Stylish!

Travis returned for the day and saw Mr. L in his office. This did NOT make him happy.

Though L could not understand him, Travis spoke anyway. "Hey, dingus?! Get outta my room before I personally take the time to work that stupid hat straight up your-"

"Ah, Hi there, Squidboy! You have a nice office."

Travis stopped threatening to grab and move L out of his room.

"Hey! I wasn't done looking through your personal photos!"

Travis placed L in the hall outside of his office and shut the door. After some looking, indeed, L had been through everything.

After his shift, he went home and screamed as 3 jumped out from behind the door and grabbed his arm.

3 burst into a fit of laughter. "Dude, you should have seen your face!"

Travis frowned and pretended as if he were not happy, when he was actually impressed. Nothing had scared him that bad before.

It took no time to piss Travis after walking in. The house was not as messy as it could be, but some things that Travis liked in certain places were swapped with others. He was a tad miffed at it, but ignored it and went on with showering and putting on lounge clothing. He now wore a green tye-dye tee and polyester shorts that went a few inches above his knees.

3 highly questioned his sense of style, but questioned many more things when Travis turned on the TV to some show about criminals in town.

He quickly switched off the TV. It wasn't good to see yourself on the world's worst criminals channel.

3 hadn't seen anything bad about Travis, but he wasn't sure she trusted him enough to protect him from persecution.

Travis attempted to track the attention to 3. "So, how was that… 'work vacation'?"

"Oh, it was… fine. Just sustained some light injury and some pride issues."

_What._

"Ooookay. Well, I actually had a-"

A thud came from the basement.

_Shoot._

"What was that?"

Travis played it off the best he could. "Probably that leak again."

"A leak? You never told me about a-"

" _Yes, there is a leak. It's a mess and you REALLY don't want to be down there._ " Travis meant to say normally, but felt a little bit mad then, so he grumbled it instead.

"Ok… are you okay?"

"I'm fine, thank you."

3 sat down on the opposite side of the couch.

Travis had turned back on the TV, but switched the display quickly. He fell asleep nearly instantly.

·- ·-· · ·-- · -·-· ·-·· · ·- ·-· -· --- ·-- ··--·· 

_Day 2 of living without family to weigh him down. Travis had a horrid day at school. The others would trip him and they would tease and even more. Travis felt as if he were always bullied, so he decided to return three school years of torture._

_One day, the bullies walked up to Travis and laughed, but they screamed as he dodged their attempt to grab him and slammed the first one into the wall._

" _Woah, kid! Calm down-"_

_The bully shut up as Travis drove their head into the wall again. He wasn't smiling, he wasn't making any expression. He had the straightest face._

_They tried to grab Travis, but he pulled out the knife he had stolen from the kitchen and swung it as hard as he could. Everyone in that room now had a stain of some sort on their shirt._

_They all collapsed, with the exception of Travis. Travis took off his emerald sweater with stains on it and wrapped it around his waist._

_He happily bounced out of the room and laughed a little._

-·· --- -·-- --- ··- ··· ···· ·· ·--· - ···· · -- --··-- ···-- ·- -· -·· - ·-· ·- ···- ·· ··· ··--·· 

Travis awoke and leaned up. He was asleep on the couch. 3 was nowhere to be found. It was morning.

Travis hopped awake and checked the date. _In 3 days, or Wednesday, is… the… restaurant date…?_

He ignored that for now and went to his room. He was really quite surprised when he saw 3 in his bed. She was sleeping soundly.

Travis took out his trusty switchblade and started playing with it.

_Aren't you a cute little thing when you're sleeping… How nice._

He walked around the bed and quietly snickered. He slowly dragged the knife against the end of the bed. _Using my bed and everything, it's a surprise I have such mercy on you. You naive, adorable, little pest. Well, not little, moreso large…_

Travis put the knife away. _Honestly, I don't know how to feel._ He sharply retracted the knife, leaving a scratch on the bed. He put the knife away. _You're right here. Right now. I could easily be rid of you. You could be out of my house- out of my hair! But that can wait._

Travis opened the closet in his room and took out the cleanest sweater he could find. He proceeded to take said sweater and put it on.

After getting dressed, he looked to 3, who was somehow still asleep.

"Must be a heavy sleeper…" Travis mumbled.

Upon hearing Travis whispering, 3 yawned and got up.

"Oh, hey Travis."

_Or not._

The following day, Travis went to the basement and came out with a… bag. It was, as he called it, "Unneeded furniture."

3 didn't question it until she thought that she saw the bag move. She swore that it moved. Travis denied it.

Finally, Travis dumped the bag out in the hostage bunker. "There. Here is your new home!"

Marley jumped up and nearly threw up.

" _What's wrong?_ " Travis teased. "Can't handle the smell?"

Marley looked around. "Where am I?"

"Where the last hostage was. Poor her. Unfortunately, sushi is still on the menu." Travis chuckled at his own joke.

"What are you-"

"Enjoy your stay, Marley."

Marley screamed and demanded for Travis to let him go, but Travis just smiled. "Aw. He's begging. It's highly ironic for someone who has a higher pay and place than me. How sadly pathetic."

Travis walked away, a cocky smirk on his face and an extra one added to his kill count.

The next day, Travis arrived to taunt Marley, only to find that he was _gone_.

Marley was gone. Nowhere to be found.

Travis angrily stomped out and stabbed a tree, to relieve stress.

Finally, Travis calmed down and took a moment to think.

_Huh. When he said that he was with the government, I should have thought that through._

Travis sighed and went back home.

He proceeded to scream again as 3 jumped out. Again. In the same spot, too.

" _This will NEVER get old!_ "

Travis sat down, clearly mad. _Dumb agent guy…. Wasn't he on the reservations list?_

Travis cracked a smile. _Oh, he's really dead._

Finally, when the day had arrived, Travis planned to go to the restaurant alone. Notice the wordplay, "Plann _ed_ "

His plans were violated when 3 came with.

Travis put on a nice suit, put his knife in the little inside pocket.

3 wore a nice dress. And the same _dirty_ shoes.

They found their seats. Travis took a moment to look around. As he suspected. There were actually quite a lot of folk there, so he had to pretend to wait. He also ignored 3.

There he was. Marley was there. Travis was all of a sudden smiling.

3 was highly bored. She sat there and nearly fell asleep.

"Why did I want to go here again? Why am I here again?"

"You wanted to go."

3 groaned and planted her face into the table. Travis was getting highly impatient.

_Now, let's wait._

_-··· --- ·· -··· --- ·· -··· --- ·· -··· --- ·· -··· --- ·· -··· --- ··_

_Meanwhile_ …

Mario and co. sat down. The princess was awake now, and was fine. They were hungry, mostly.

They had reached a cave again. This one went deeper. Mario found himself intrigued and had gone down it. The others reluctantly followed.

"Mario, we should leave."

Mario shook his head. "Not until we find something to eat down here. I can still smell the fruit!"

They all sighed again. "Mario, we've been down here for an hour, I don't think there's fruit here."

Mario screamed and they all jumped. "WHAT, what?!'

Mario pointed and happily bounced.

A large fruit sat on a piece of elevated floor.

"A fruit. Speak of the devil."

"I go to church, so no, no I don't." Toad mumbled.

Mario rolled his eyes and ran to the fruit. "Now all we need is to get it down."

Mario jumped and found himself going about one, maybe half of, a foot.

"Any ideas, guys? Because my only plan, as of right now, is not working."

They all shrugged. Bowser grabbed Toad and dropped him nearby the fruit platform. "Jump on him."

Mario frowned. "That's a horrible idea."

"Do you want the fruit?" Toad said.

"Yes, but-"

"This is kinda the only way."

Mario frowned and said a quick apology before jumping directly onto Toad's large, spotted head. He bounced all the way up to the fruit.

"Yay! Now, I'll push it down."

Toad scurried out of the way as the large fruit came down.

"What is it?"

Peach lightly tapped the fruit. "It looks like a giant mango…?"

"Why is it so big?"

"The same reason that everything else was so big," Bowser said, stroking his chin. "Because the environment on this planet is big!"

They all glared at Bowser.

"Let's just eat the fruit before we starve."

They enjoyed the fruit, before it was gone. When it was gone, they were all satisfied. They stood, one by one. Mario led the way, deeper into the cave.

They halted, thirty minutes later. "Did you hear that..?" Mario said, crouching down.

"No." Bowser basically roared.

Mario turned around and his face instantly changed.

"What?"

Toad turned and instantly grabbed Peach and ran.

Bowser turned. A large, glow-in-the-dark, vivid-colored, bat-like creature was following them. It opened its large mouth and inhaled strongly. Bowser felt himself being lifted toward it.

Bowser shot fire. It (somehow) missed.

"Mario, HELP ME!"

Mario jumped and weighed Bowser down.

Bowser and Mario went up, but the creature stopped inhaling.

"Thanks. Where'd it go?"

Mario hopped up from the floor. "Was going into this cave a bad idea?"

" _Yes._ "

Mario and Bowser ran to where Peach and Toad were. A dead end.

"What do we do?"

Mario turned to the watch. "Travel ready." It said.

He covered his eyes. "Guys, we might die, but I'm going to use this watch."

The creature appeared in front of them.

"USE THE WATCH!"

Mario felt around for the watch, before uncovering his eyes to press the side button. They all screamed as they disappeared into thin air.

Mario felt himself flying speedily. He opened his eyes to see a large, white and blue landscape. It was like a white space. Mario gasped. He then gasped again, as he could not breathe.

He opened his eyes again to Toad poking his face. "Hey, Mario? You alive?"

Mario leaned up. "Yeah, where are we? Heaven?"

"No. But we got split up again."

_Oh, mio dio..._

Mario looked around. A beach and a sea was all he could see. And then there was the jungle behind him.

"Toad, where are we?"

Toad shrugged.

They both screamed as a large figure fell from the sky. A large ape wearing a tie with the letters "DK" now stood in front of them.

Mario squinted. _I know him!_

"Toad, we know this guy! Remember Donkey Kong?"

Toad frowned. "The guy who Pauline dumped you for?"

"That's hurtful, and no. We went karting together?"

DK was poking Toad's bulbous head and watching it bounce back.

"Have you seen the princess?"

DK nodded ecstatically and scooped up Mario and Toad in one arm. With the other, DK swung through the jungle.

Mario screamed in delight. Toad screamed in pain as vines hit him in the face as they swung past.

Finally, they landed. The princess was asleep again. She was on a bed of leaves.

"Finally! We found her! AGAIN!"

The ape behind them felt abandoned for a second.

DK looked up, to a treehouse. It was labelled, "Kong" and was made of wood and straw.

DK picked up the princess and carried her up and into the house. He sat her in another leaf bed.

Mario and Toad, after several minutes of trying, climbed up.

"Nice house ya got there." Toad mumbled, as he tried to turn on the TV.

Mario looked out the window. He _WAS_ thinking, but soon, he was watching as a portal opened and a small scouting ship landed on the beach.

"What is that?"

DK looked out too. He grumbled and went to leave. Mario grabbed his arm. "I'm going too."

DK shrugged and picked up Mario, Toad waved them off.

·- -· -·· ···· ··- ·-· - -·-- --- ··- 

_On the beach of DK island…_

Billy shook the sand out of his goggles.

"I hate beaches. The sand, the seashells, that one dead jellyfish that always stings someone, I hate them!"

Amber was shaking herself off as well. "I love beaches! Me and my brother would always visit the beach for vacations. Of course, now we're bitter enemies."

"Ok, but we're here for the weird experimental bananas."

They both looked toward the forest. "Why couldn't Travis come with us? He would have known what to do…"

Amber sighed. "Rumor's gone around that he's got a date. Again."

"Doesn't he kill those?"

They didn't realize the large ape flying down from the sky toward them. Billy, shortly after seeing it, screamed.

Amber grabbed and moved Billy away, right as DK landed.

"Oh man, you nearly squashed us!"

Mario hopped off and scowled. "Hey, it's that little green piece of garbage again. Who's this, your girlfriend?"

Billy scowled too. "Oh, if it isn't the mustachioed red stain. 'S that your pet?"

"Oh, you're lucky he isn't…"

"Aw, if only I weren't a toad. I'd have whooped your butt redder than it already was!"

"What do you want, you little booger?"

"Oh, just here for some bananas. But the bananas are coming with some red stains and singed ape hair."

DK and Mario frowned. "You can't do that, we're not gonna let you!"

Amber rested her hand on the holstered Monado.

"So that's how it's gonna be, eh?"

Billy activated the chrome arms and a demonic smile crept up his face.

Mario and DK charged at the two, only for Amber to swing as hard as she could, knocking back Mario, but not Dk. DK was about to punch Billy, but Billy grabbed his hand and tried to punch him back. DK caught Billy's large, metal hand and then kicked the toad as far as he could. Billy didn't fly very far. Mario had jumped toward Amber. She was fast enough to dodge Mario and parry. Mario ducked in the nick of time, but the sword still grazed his arm. Mario grunted. Something was arising within him. Mario motioned for Dk to move. Dk kicked Billy off and rolled away, right as Mario put his hands together and screamed as he shot a huge fire blast from his hands, sending Billy and Amber far into the jungle. It also lit a few of the nearby trees on fire. DK scrambled to put out the flames, while Mario put out his own hands. Mario came around to help DK.

The two flew and landed right in front of DK's house. They stood and Amber laughed. "Hey, we found the bananas." She pointed toward a nearby cavern, labeled, "Kong's banana hoard."

They both went in. Billy gasped. "Well these are some pretty cool bananas. What do ya fancy they do, that your daddy wanted 'em for?"

Amber picked one up. "He mentioned something about size. Maybe they shrink whomever eats them?"

Billy shrugged and held one up to his face. "This is… odd. Do these seem… brighter, to you?"

Amber shrugged and scooped a bagful of them. "I don't know, but grab as much as you can. Maybe I'll let you experiment, once we get back."

"Yeah, if Dong, over there, doesn't kill us first…"

Billy took the time to find a marker in his vest and write a D over the K in "Kong's banana hoard"

Amber laughed at the joke but they both blanched when they saw how lost they were.

"Huh. We are lost."

"Yep… very… lost. So… where did the red stain send us from?"

They both sighed and started walking through the moist environment.

"Next time, remind me to draft Travis on this job."

They walked until they heard a sound behind them. They turned and Billy swore that he was on the verge of laughter. An anthropomorphic crocodile wearing a bandanna and a white tank top with cargo shorts stood behind them. " _Oh no…_ " Amber muttered.

Billy blanched. "These guys _DON'T_ travel in packs… right…?"

They looked up to see about five more in the trees. "So… we seem to have attracted some Kremlings."

Billy turned and four more blocked the forward path.

They found themselves surrounded.

Billy pulled a bomb from his vest and backed toward Amber. "On three, I'm going to teleport us back to the ship… ok?'

Though Billy couldn't see it, he was sure that she nodded.

Billy slowly counted down, as the Kremlings closed in. "3…"

They started going faster. "2…"

The Kremlings were so close, you could smell their horrid breath. "ONE!" Billy slammed the bomb to the ground, opening a portal back to the beach.

Billy landed headfirst into the sand, Amber fell on top of him, burying his poor self deeper into the sand.

Amber stood up and rejoiced, while Billy tried escaping from drowning in sand.

Finally, they reached the ship and sat the three large sacks of bananas down. "Cool. Now, let's leave."

* ··· · -··- -·-- -· --- ·· ··· · ··· *

_Meanwhile…_

Travis felt as if this trip were a waste of time. Especially with 3 coming along. If he were to commit a quick one, she would be in the way!

And then it hit him. _What was that… psionic stuff I learned…_

He looked around. _It'll stun them for about… six? Maybe five minutes?_

Travis cracked a smile and could've sworn that 3 was staring at him. Travis cast the move the others at his job called, "PK Flash."

At once, a large display of white lights and bulbs flew everywhere, captivating the large audience at hand. They stared until the display exploded, a flash of light going everywhere, the entire building blinded. They all stood still for a second, as if they were hypnotized. One moved. They stood, looked around, then burst into tears. Another one burst into tears. Someone else randomly started attacking someone who was crying, for no reason. Most of them fainted, about a third of them were attacking each other, and the rest were crying uncontrollably. Travis wasn't affected. He turned and 3 had fainted as well. Instantly, Travis smiled. _No one would suspect it through the chaos…_

Whilst the crowd of squid sobbed and beat each other up, Travis glided over to Marley's seat. Marley was in tears. Travis looked at Marley. Marley hadn't seen him yet. Travis grabbed Marley and dragged him to one of the back rooms. Marley flew into the room as Travis tossed him over.

Marley looked up to Travis, who had closed and locked the door. Marley smiled. "Was it you?"

"Was it me who what?"

"You did that. You-"

Travis switched faces almost immediately. He went from calm and collected, to eyes widened and knife out.

" _Of course it was me!_ Are you dumb, son? Just because you're with the government you think that you're exempt from me? Well, newsflash, you aren't!"

Marley pulled out some sort of tracker. "Even if you kill me, they will find you."

"And… lemme get this straight… _you think I care?_ I'll kill them too. Who even is 'them'?"

"The-"

"That was a rhetorical question, Marley, I thought you were smarter than that."

Marley tried blinking out the forced tears to see Travis properly. "Who are you, anyway?"

"You wouldn't recognize the person you tried to put in jail?"

Travis laughed when Marley's eyes grew wide. "I know what you're thinking. 'How would he know that?' things come around, buddy. If you thought you were off the hook, pun intended, you literally are not."

Marley tried pressing a button on the tracker, but Travis took it. "What even is this? What dumpster did you dive in to get this, eh?" Travis laughed at his own joke. Marley remained drying his face.

Finally Travis stopped playing around. "Ok, it was fun playing with you, but I didn't come in here for friendly banter… Basically, hold still while I-"

Marley tried to take back the tracker by standing up and trying to wrench it from Travis's hands. Travis, knowing he was trying to do such actions, jabbed the switchblade into Marley's side one good time, knocking him over. Marley now clutched his side as Travis bent down.

" _Oh, that was a mistake._ "

\- ···· · · -- · ·-· ·- ·-·· -·· -- ·- -· -·-· --- -- · - ···· 

Luigi nearly jumped out of his skin when he came back and saw Simon in the lounge. "Hey, what are you doing here-"

Simon darted over to Luigi and grabbed him by the shoulders, smiling creepily. "Finally, you're back! Thank heavens, I was going insane! So, remember Janet?"

Luigi nodded slowly.

"Good, because he's gone insane."

Luigi had to do a double take. "He's _what_?"

·· - ·----· ··· -·-· --- -- · ·- ·-·· ·· ···- · ·- -· -·· ·· ·-- ·- -· - ·· -· 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *added code  
> * C·-·· E·- T--- -·


	9. Is It Over?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (suicide warning)

3 went to work the next day, clearly tired because she was forcefully asleep the entire day, finally woke up at 6 am in the morning, and was up all night.

3 blinked and was quickly grabbed and moved. "Oh, hey, you're here now." Simon said, as he hid in the doorway. "We've been up all night because our cohort wants us dead."

"What…?"

Simon covered 3's mouth and looked around the corner. Something was making a loud noise at the end of the corridor.

Once the sound had gone away, Simon let go and whispered. "So, it wasn't a good idea to go into work today, because Janet is trying to kill us!"

"What?"

"Do you know what happened, because I sure as heck do not!"

They heard a thud resonate from the gear room. "And he's in the bombs now."

They heard a scream and a green blur went past them. Luigi was now hiding beside them. "3, thank goodness, the captain is not here and Janet is-"

"Trying to kill us, I think I know that now."

"Then you can help us before he reaches the end of the corridor."

3 sighed and thought to herself, _This is just some sick joke._

She went out from the hiding spot and locked eyes with the white-haired, seemingly homicidal guest. Janet's eyes were bloodshot and he looked sad.

3 ducked right as he fired the pistol he held at her.

_Ok, he's trying to kill us._

Janet reloaded the gun and, with a shaky hand, pointed it again.

Janet turned to see the captain walking down the hall. "Hey, Janet… what's wrong?"

The captain's eyes went wide as Janet aimed the gun at him.

3 tackled Janet before he was able to pull the trigger.

The captain fell over.

30 minutes later, Janet finally woke up. The agents had tied him to a chair.

"Where am I… Who are you people?"

The captain came in the room with his phone out. "So… Alpha has absolutely no idea what's happening. We have to figure this out ourselves."

"How about I slap him?" 3 said, rubbing her hands together.

"No, that'll probably mess him up worse. What's wrong with him?"

"If it weren't evident," Said Simon,"we don't exactly know."

Janet started squirming in the seat.

"Can I slap him now?"

Luigi pulled out a finger prick. "Maybe we could send a sample to medbay for a checkup?"

"Maybe that's not-"

Janet raised his hands, which were tied up before.

" _OH-_ "

Janet grabbed the nearest blunt object, the wrench Alph forgot to pick up yesterday, and swung it as hard as he could, but they dodged it. All, except for 3. 3 got hit directly in the jaw with the wrench.

The wrench-wielding Janet went to hit 3 again, but Luigi grabbed the wrench and tried to take it. Janet dropped the wrench on Luigi's foot and tried to run. He ran directly into Simon, who tried to calm Janet down. Janet shoved over Simon and ran away again.

They found Janet in the lounge. " _STAY. AWAY."_ He demanded.

They complied until Alph entered the room. "Hey guys, what's goin' on-"

Janet threw the nearest object, the lamp on the desk nearby, and threw it at Alph.

Alph moved right in time to not get hit in the head with a desk lamp.

Janet backed into the corner. He was trapped. "Don't come any closer, fiends!"

They took a moment to think about that. "Fiends…?"

Janet ran forward, his eyes bloodshot and his face determined. He punched 3 in the jaw, there was already a bruise there, so she instantly dropped and clutched it. Simon tried to grab Janet, but he ducked and threw Alph at him. Simon fell over and Alph as well. Luigi pulled out the taser and charged. Janet narrowly dodged the taser and grabbed it. He smiled. "Goodbye." Janet turned the taser around and dug it into Luigi's chest.

The captain ran up, but Janet reared back his leg, as far as he could, and soccer-style kicked the captain across the room.

Janet ran away again. Luigi was making sure that 3 was okay, while Simon chased after Janet.

Simon found Janet in the deck, where the ship was. Janet held the gun up again. "Please… H-help me."

He pointed the gun toward himself, as tears rolled down his face. Simon slowly stepped closer.

"Janet, please do not shoot yourself, you're, like, 17, and we need you! Doesn't your family need you?"

Janet remained silent

_Oh my god, can you be any more compliant?_

"You still are needed in the mortal plane, just until you're probably 70, in which that is the perfect time to leave the mortal plane. But you are needed now, so please do not shoot."

Janet didn't seem to be listening. At all. Instead, he smiled, as if in intense pain.

"The green man. I see him everywhere. I think I'm insane. You think I'm insane."

" _Well, you're not wrong-_ uhh- no, you're just distressed from…" Simon had to think for a moment. "Sleep deprivation…?"

"Tell my cousin to end the family here." Janet said. After he said that, Simon ran to stop Janet. Janet, who had said his basic final words, wasn't paying any attention. Simon tackled Janet, knocking the gun away. "What are you doing, I am supposed to be dead!"

Simon blinked and Janet had grabbed the holstered hunting knife on Simon's vest.

"You need to stop the green man…. Before he kills you next-"

Janet laughed and plunged the knife into his chest. Simon put his hands over Janet's.

" _OH NO!_ Ok, just hold still, we can still fix you up-"

Janet proceeded to jerk out the knife. Simon watched, hopeless and confused, as Janet's body rested.

_30 minutes later..._

"JANET IS _WHAT?!_ " Alpha yelled into the comms.

"Yes, sir, he- uhh… went mad and stabbed himself." The captain sighed, clearly embarrassed.

"And… how?! What'd he do, just get up and say, 'oh I want to go and die today' and stab himself?"

"...that is an… accurate… description, yes…"

Alpha sighed loudly from the other side of the comms.

"Ok, just…" He sighed again. "I'll see how fast I can be there."

Alpha shut off the comms and fastened his mask. _Janet, you knew better. Something is amiss here._

_One hour later…_

Alpha finally appeared. "Oh _GOD_ you would not want to know how long that took- where is Janet?"

They led Alpha to the medical platform. "Ok, I will take him to the morgue, you fellas... " He took a moment to think. "Can I be real with you kids for a second? Janet was the only immediate family that did not want me dead. Everyone else in my family, my dad, my sister, they hate me. Now you know the urgency of everything. I… must go now. Keep working on that Gamma case."

·-- · ·----· ···- · -·- -· --- ·-- -· · ·- ---- --- - ···· · ·-· ··-· --- ·-· ··· --- ·-·· --- -· --· 

_The next day…._

Amber walked into work the next day to Billy with a crooked smile on his face.

"Ah! The Kinder Omega arrives! Good, good, I have something cool to show you."

Billy was bouncy and energetic that morning, not that Amber questioned it.

Billy walked them to a testing chamber with a prisoner in. The prisoner was just a Pokey. It had two spiky spheres and seemed content at the moment.

"Ok, so I took the bananas and noticed that they were already really… radioactive. As it turns out, my studies are right! If any organism eats the bananas at a daily rate, their size grows 5 times the speed of a normal creature of their species! This is the Pokey we have today."

Amber waved.

"And then here comes my experimentation. I took it down to a molecular level. I opened genes and structural pathways that supercharged the nutrients of these bananas. Now, this is the Pokey who has been fed the normal, radioactive, bananas."

Another Pokey, quite a bit larger in size, was revealed.

"And then, if you'll follow me…"

A larger cell with a Pokey about… 15 feet? A 15 foot Pokey was in the cell. "The benefits of the supercharged bananas!"

Amber got excited. "So, I just eat one of those and-"

"Suffer ten tons of diarrhea? Exactly. I'm trying to find a way to get them to grow faster. Humans cannot directly consume them. Otherwise…" Billy made a fart noise with his elbow.

Amber shuddered and they left the room.

"So, in theory, I could make a growth serum. This would be ideal to… taking over the universe. Unfortunately, we only have one way to get it… in your system. That being, orally. If I had a human test rat, however… things may be different."

The unfiltered excitement of being a toad's test rat blew up in Amber's mind.

"How about _ME?_ "

"No, you're the boss now. If this were to kill you, your dad would cut off my spots and eat them in my face."

"Exactly, I am the boss. You do as I say. And I say that you have me as the test rat."

Billy sighed. "So, if I were to tell your father, I would say that you wanted me to test on you first."

"I will take full blame."

"Well…" said Billy in a hushed voice, "not if you're dead…"

Billy laughed a little, before picking up a banana. "Ok, test rat, eat it."

Amber peeled the banana, stared at it for a second or two, and took a bite. "Nothing's happening-"

Billy was wide-eyed and smiling. " _Oh YES._ What's your height?"

"5,9."

"Ok, because I could safely guess that you are 6,1 now. Also, please escort yourself as fast as you can to the nearest bathroom."

Amber felt a horrible cramp in her stomach.

"Note to self, add some Pepto Bismol into the liquid formula. Or just remind humans not to drink it."

Billy awkwardly laughed as Amber ran to the restroom.

_1 hour later…_

Amber returned, drained entirely.

"Ok, now that you're back, may I run some tests?" Billy smiled as he strapped on a latex glove.

"Why should I trust you again?'

"Well, I've studied human biology for… 3 years? And if I hadn't dropped out of school on the last day, I'd have a degree."

Amber sighed. "Is that true?"

Billy rolled his eyes. "Let me run the tests. It's not pedophilia if I'm several years younger than you."

"How old are you?"

"Travis told me you're 25? I'm… 19."

Amber's eyes went wide. _"Technically, there isn't a pedo here."_

"Smart girl. Now let me run the test."

"My dad will kill you and then probably me."

"Last I heard, this was your choice, so he's probably still gonna kill me."

Billy rummaged through a cabinet for a second. Amber caught the end of a glare. Billy sat something in his coat and led her away. Billy sat Amber on the very comfortable "platform" as he called it.

She did not feel it until it had happened, it being the moment he put her to sleep with a sedative.

During the sequence of her eyes shutting, Amber saw Billy strap on a mask.

Billy smiled a crooked smile, under his mask. _Who said I wasn't interested in just the bananas? Human biology school didn't teach me a certain subject..._

Billy strapped gloves to his chrome arms as well. "Now, let's see what you've done to yourself."

He lifted himself onto the operation table, using the chrome arms. He laughed a little. "Oh, her dad's SO gonna kill me. _Just know I'm dying FOR SCIENCE!_ "

Billy cackled.

-··· ·· ·-·· ·-·· -·-- -·· --- -· · ·-- · -· - ·· -· 

_2 hours later…_

Amber groaned as she mustered the strength to open her eyes.

"Billy…?"

Billy was still wearing the gloves and had a devious smile on his face.

"Ah, the wonders of human biology… It's really fascinating, when you think about it."

He laughed as he pulled out a little vial. "This is your blood. Or, should I say, WAS your blood."

He pulled out another vial. It was normal colored, but Billy held it with extreme caution.

"This is the blood I got from the three hours of you sleeping… _along with the studies..."_

_What studies?_

Billy saw the discerning look on Amber's face. "Oh, don't worry, that's for later. Right now, we're focusing on the blood. It's literally warming up in this glass and I'm incredibly scared."

Amber was still in the clothes she was in before she was asleep, but had a little bandage over her finger and was in an entirely different place.

"Hey, focus on ME. And get up, I use that table for other things, you know!"

"Other things..?"

"Yes, good girl, now get off."

Billy resorted to dragging her off. It was easy, except for the fact that she went limp entirely, making it hard to go anywhere. Two minutes later, Billy had set her in her own bed and had left. Something was off, though. _What did he do to me?_

Billy strutted down the hall, that creepy smile still on his face.

_I love human biology._

He sat down at his desk and sat a paper on it.

Billy took a camera from the cabinet, set it up in front of him, turned it to record, and spoke.

"Ms. Omega is a very complex character. Her goals astound me. But I did something very wrong. She was willing to be a test subject. Maybe I should have thought the feeding thing through, because she's on a direct crash course to the end of everything her dad worked toward…"

Billy held up a picture with a graph on it.

"The energy detector nearly blew up upon scanning her! Those bananas are jacked up. What I plan to do next is very simple. All I want is physical evidence that anything other than her height is changed by them… but that's gonna be hard. I would either have to literally monitor her every two seconds or probe her… which would probably get me killed. It is worth a try, though. I just wish to see the true extent of everything, and Ms. Omega is an ideal host, oddly. Testing resumes tomorrow."

Billy turned off the camera and went home.

·-- · ·- ·-· · ··· - ·· ·-·· ·-·· ···· · ·-· · . -·-· ·- -· -·-- --- ··- ···· · ·-·· ·--· ··- ··· ··--·· 

Alpha walked through the halls, his stance giving off mean vibes.

His assistant came up from beside. "Sir, Janet is properly cremated, where should we put him?"

"Please do not mention that, but put it on the desk in my room."

The assistant walked away.

Alpha reached his office and sat down. After making sure that his room was secure, he removed the mask and sighed. _Amber's got it better than me, right? Her and dad…_

For a second, he took a second to remember the good days, as he called it. 

·- -··· · ·- -·-· --- -· ·· ··· -- ·- -·· · - --- --· ·· ···- · ···· --- ·--· · ·- -· -·· ·-·· ·· --· ···· - .

_4 years ago._

"Son, we're close to it. Our ultimate goal."

Meryll smiled as he looked between his 21-year old daughter and his 24-year old son.

"It took years. Finally, we made an intergalactic base. It's so large…"

They walked through the base. "Your mother would be proud."

Michael, the son, laughed. "And yet this was only possible because of her research…"

They all laughed. Michael left to explore everything.

"Father," Said Amber(yes, Amber,) "Will you tell him?"

Meryll sighed. "Well… the army isn't exactly at it's best shape, so… not until it's complete. Now, you're going to help with that, but Michael is NOT to be included in this, alright?"

"Ok, but he's smarter than we think, he may as well be told beforehand."

"It's ok, I know what I have to do."

Amber sighed and walked away.

Meryll frowned and remembered what his wife said. " _An empire made of the entire galaxy. They will bow to us._ "

"I will not fail you."

-··· ·-· --- -·- · -· . ·-·· ·· -·- · -- · . -·-· ·- -· -·-- --- ··- ···· · ·- ·-· -- · ··--·· 

_Present…_

Alpha looked in the mirror. A nasty scar ran through his left eye and ended nearly level with his chin. Alpha threw on his mask and trotted down the hall, to the cell hall. Many different prisoners cowered or taunted or called names when Alpha arrived. Most of them were cowering. And then there was Omega. Alpha commanded the guards to drag him into the interrogation room, where Alpha sat down and motioned for the guards and watching people to leave.

"Son, why are you doing this?"

Alpha took off his mask. "You know good and well why I am here. Now tell me, where is Amber?"

"She'd have taken my spot by now. She is the new," He waved his hands in the air. "Omega."

"That's not good, for her reckless self…"

"Yes, but she was the only one there for that task."

"Stop shaming me for leaving, you know why I left. Now tell me. Where is she?"

Omega scoffed. "Like I'd tell you."

"Or I could send out a message to everyone in this corporation and she would have a 50/50 chance of being brought in as a corpse or alive."

"Son, you wouldn't kill your only sister-"

"But you killed Jan. What else? Did you kill Mother too?"

Omega sighed."One day, you will realize that you have made a grave mistake."

"The only mistake I made was not taking more with me when I left."

Omega refused to say more, so Alpha put back on the mask, and left.

Almost as if he had suffered a direct failure, Alpha trudged back to his room.

_\--· · - - ·· -· ··-· ·-· · ·- -·- -·-- --- -· ·- ··-· ·-· ·· -·· ·- -·-- -· ·· --· ···· - -·-- · ·- ····_

_3 days later…_

The captain walked in, seemingly tired.

"Ok," The captain yawned. "I missed several hours of sleep because there was a signal coming from somewhere nearby-" He yawned again. "And then I tracked it for several hours-" he yawned a third time. "And this is where I got."

The signal was a long way away, but it was worth a try.

The captain yawned again. "And we're going there… probably tomorrow."

Since the captain himself was tired and homesick, they all went to their homes.

Simon opened the door to his house. A mess awaited him. A huge mess. This mess had been there since he left in… chapter 2?

Since he did not stand for a mess, Simon hung up his jacket, rolled up his sleeves, and got busy.

There were a bunch of clothes in the floor of his room. He had a lot of clothing. There was a lot, so much, in fact, that most of it didn't even fit in the closet. After cleaning his room (only) he laid down on his bed and stared at the ceiling as he thought about everything.

_How I miss the days when the MVPs were more than this. Now, we're mostly what the worlds have to count on, Alpha has basically lost hope, no one else from the- what? Five teams left, wants to do this job. A ragtag team of creatures fighting a losing battle. Maybe I'm being too pessimistic, but we're basically doomed! Last time, the captain got himself beaten to near death by a toad with an extra pair of chrome arms! What will we do now, hm?_

_\--- ···· - ·-· ·- ···- ·· ··· --··-- ·· - ·----· ··· ····- ·--· -- !_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> * ·- -·· -·· · -·· -·-· --- -·· ·   
> *Wait, what?


	10. Is This The End?

The very next day, Simon walked to the bathroom and smiled. He ran his hands through his hair.

_Time for a restyle…_

The rest of the agents gawked at the long, blond hair up in a ponytail when Simon walked in.

Even with it up in a ponytail, the length of his straightened hair went down to his shoulders. Luigi seemed jealous. The captain stayed sipping his coffee, Alph didn't seem to care and 3 wanted to touch it. Badly.

They sat down around the screen table, where the captain had the signal displayed.

"Ok, folks, we're headed somewhere very dangerous and it's best if we gear up heavily, so I contacted Alpha and…"

The captain walked over and hit the button that would normally transport them to the ship deck. Up came their suits.

"Ok, so Alpha had your normal suits cleaned, that's not what I wanted…" The captain finally hit the right button. More MVP gear came up.

"Regal gear, that's-.. That's what he gave us."

Luigi ran over and grabbed his suit. Luigi's suit was the same, but with some new gadgets.

Luigi's suit had a glove on the right hand, with a hacking terminal built into it. There were vest gun holsters, the shoes had built-in jet boosters, which could carry his weight and even more, the mask was softer and, this was with all of the suits, internal scanners for a vitals check.

Simon's suit included a more advanced set of goggles, one gun holster. For a small one. Also adjustable magnets for a sword holster. He was very excited about that. Even more, he was given cloaking options on his as well. The shoes had traction settings.

3's suit included more face protection, she chose the mask, much like Luigi. The gloves were 10% thicker, as the captain claimed. The boots were made of lighter materials and were more durable. She also had the cloaking vest.

Alph was given a regal suit as well, even though he wasn't even given an MVP standard suit.

He had the hacking terminal, a taser holster, and the badge and vest, much like everyone else.

The captain looked stylish in his suit. They heard 3 mention practicality over stylishness, but they highly ignored her and went on with the surprises.

Simon smiled as he disappeared from sight. 3 screamed as he popped back into sight, right behind her, two minutes later.

Finally, they stopped playing to listen to the captain.

"With this, we gotta go. Because I said we'd be out an hour ago."

They hurriedly went to the ship deck and hopped in. But. Alph followed them. For the first time.

Alph had to be strapped in with someone, due to a lack of seats. They feared that 3 would probably suffocate the poor child, so Luigi was entrusted with holding him until the end of the ride. It was… _awkward._

They went into hyperspace. Alph nearly flew out of the seat. At the end of the ride, Simon got up and ran to the garbage disposal. They heard a large portion of poor Simon blowing chunks into the garbage disposal.

They neared the base.

"Ok. We're going to leave Alph here. Use the hacking terminal and the comms to actually serve a purpose, ok?"

Alph made a small offended face for two seconds, before the captain resumed. "We're going to have to land in through the pods. I remind you, do not kill unless absolutely necessary, got it?"

They nodded and Alph waved as he pulled the lever to launch the pods. The pods landed directly in the side of the base, where they hopped out.

"They know we're here. Be careful."

_.-- .... --- / .. ... / -.-. .- .-.. .-.. .. -. --. / - --- / -.-- --- ..- ..--.. / - / .-. / .- -....-_

_2 hours earlier…_

Billy leaned in the doorway to Amber's room. "Hey. You still up for the 'test rat' thing?"

She groaned and turned around. "I've been straight bored all day-"

Billy had a tape measurer out and told her to grab it.

"You are.. 6… 9. Did you eat any more of those experimental fruit?"

"You mean the bananas?"

" _Did or did you not eat them_?"

"Maybe one or two more. Of the ones you didn't ruin."

"Good. I'm sure we'll need to extend the roof a few feet higher, in that case."

" _WHAT?!_ "

"Yeah, you're experiencing the benefits of your actions. Perhaps you should armor up and follow me, scout in the MVP base gave word of an attack being rumored."

Billy left.

Amber finally caught up with Billy in his lab.

"What are you doing…?"

Billy had a pale red colored vial. It looked like blood-filled saliva. Probably went down the throat like it too.

"I took the limitation properties from the all-popular Mushroom and mixed them with the extra growth properties of these fruits to make this. It'll heighten you for about… an hour, maybe two?"

"How big?"

"Well, from what the bananas do and the mushrooms do, I'd guess you'd get an extra….two or three feet. That's an extremely blind guess. You don't need this, not yet. Now, if you do drink it, I'd suggest wearing an extra two sizes up, missy. Or just roam around huge and naked at the same time and blind your teammates."

"Maybe let's just put that away. Don't wanna… tempt someone."

Billy smiled boldly. "Yeah, let's put it in a safe place! Where no one, _NO ONE_ , will find it!"

Amber and Billy sat in silence for a moment. " _If you didn't get the memo, I want you-"_

"-To leave, thank you. I'm going now."

She slowly stepped out of the room.

When she was finally gone, Billy put a cap on the vial and put it on his coat. _My studies do not deserve you._

Amber went and addressed the scout at the MVP base, who claimed that they were onto him. She did NOT care until he mentioned that the leader of the MVPs' real name had a "Michael" in it.

The thought was highly interesting. Amber sat down and thought about it. _M… Michael? He ran away from us 5 years ago! How could he have made an entire corporation in 1 year? He can't lead! I… I will get to the bottom of this._

Before she could say anything else, the scout spoke again. "Omega is doing fine there. He's being fed and washed and whatnot, but Alpha visits him and asks where you are, everyday."

_Michael. That's definitely him._

"Ok, thank you for the news, now go back to work."

He waved and left.

Amber sat back and frowned. "That's not Michael. Michael left us out here, for that ragtag fake military? I will see fit that I see him-"

A sentry ran through the halls. "MVP ALERT! They're coming!"

Amber grabbed the intercom. "Battle positions!"

Billy went to grab the vial and frowned. _She has it… oh no…_

_-.-- --- ..- / -.- -. --- .-- / - .... . / .-. ..- .-.. . ... --..-- / .- -. -.. / ... --- / -.. --- / .._

_Nearby…_

Simon had cloaked himself and was waltzing past the guards. He looked around. The room he had entered now was empty, except for two doors and a bunch of seats, much like an arena.

Alph stopped him. "S, watch out, there's some weird signals in that room…"

"I think I've got it-"

He halted. "Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

S undid the cloaking for a second and the doors on either side slammed shut, as the lights came on.

"I knew that was a bad idea…"

The seats of the arena started filling up with Gamma guards and scouts and everything of the like.

"Ah! There you are!"

Simon turned and Amber had been sitting there, with her sword and was wearing some sort of armor. It looked very big on her. It looked as if she was entirely trapped in it.

"What are you wearing…"

She frowned. "Practicality over stylishness."

Simon drew his sword and readied himself.

Amber drew hers and smiled toward the crowd.

The crowd booed and jeered at Simon.

Simon sighed. "What's the rules?"

"What?"

"The rules. Every duel has rules."

Amber smirked as she picked the vial from her pocket and undid the cap. "Well, in that case, the only rule I have is…"

She glared at an angry Billy in the crowd and drank the vial's liquid. It tasted horrible. She found herself fitting the armor, though. She had grown.

"Kid, I think I might die here, so tell L that he can't have the last hot pocket in the fridge when I die. It's _mine._ "

He heard a groan over the comms, from Luigi, he guessed.

Alph, who was slurping down a smoothie of some sort, examined the camera feed.

"Well, the odds aren't entirely against you… the sword didn't grow with her."

Amber seemed to just now find that out. " _ARGH! Dangit!_ "

Travis now had popcorn.

Simon drew his sword and said a quick prayer, before dashing in.

A fancy display of sparks and swordplay went on for a good 30 minutes, before Simon dropped to the floor, weak.

Though everyone couldn't make it out what he said, Simon probably cursed angrily.

He jumped up and grabbed Amber's sword, a smile cracking up his face.

Instead of a display of sparks, the display was a light show, ending with Simon sheathing his new sword in such a badass way that the crowd went insane and Amber toppling to the floor.

Simon sheathed the blade right as Alph cut the power, opening the doors.

The audience spoke among themselves. Travis took this time to leave, before he got involved.

3 and Luigi were beside Simon now. "So… what did she do to grow into that armor, and where is it now?"

Billy ran up and used the chrome arms to grab Amber by the shoulders. "You _WASTE!_ I worked hard on that, just for you to waste it! _YOU WASTED MY STUDIES!_ "

Billy kept spewing angry insults until the captain put handcuffs over the chrome arms.

Billy sighed. "And I was going places with that. Thanks a lot, missy. You ruined everything."

The crowd of guards and workers screamed as they were assaulted by the same MVP army that arrested Omega.

"Yet again, I get a beacon and _you_ are here. It's been twice now…"

Alpha slowly walked in, his hands behind his back.

"And yet, you still can't fain to amaze me. You stopped the runner-up to the Omega. Cool."

The rest of the agents looked at Simon. "Well, it was mostly this guy right here," Luigi said, pushing Simon forward.

"Not to give myself a pat on the back, but yeah… it was me."

Alpha walked past them and toward the girl who laid in the armor that was huge.

"She… isn't dead, right?"

"No, just bruised up."

Alpha made some weird noise from under the mask, like a groan and a sigh at the same time.

"Ok, I'll take it from here. You guys go and catch as many of the runaways as you can."

They all nodded and darted off.

Alpha pulled Amber from the suit and sighed. _Finally. The dream of conquering the universe is… gone. Just like the bond with my family._

Alpha's assistant, who was all geared up as well, walked up. "Shall I take her away sir?"

"Medical bay, just make sure she's not bleeding out."

"Yes, sir."

The assistant carried Amber away.

Alpha sighed. _Though we have won the fight, I feel no sense of completion… something here was staged._

He ran out of the room and to the nearest character he could interrogate, which was Billy.

He crouched down and looked at Billy.

"Hey, masked man? Stop staring, creep!" Billy yelled.

"I just need to ask you some-"

"Some questions, yeah, yeah, no. I ain't speakin'."

"Even if it warrants your freedom?"

"F-freedom…?"

"Yes, you already have three choices, prison, mind wipe, or MVP job, but I'm giving you a fourth option, just answer my question."

Billy sat there for a moment. "What's the question?"

"How many bases are there? How many bases does this corporation have?"

"...sorry, chief, can't tell ya that."

Alpha held back the painful urge to yell something that would probably be spoken about for years, had he yelled it. Finally, he got over his rage and demanded that Billy be taken away, and Billy was escorted out.

_Nearby…_

Travis threw his stuff into a bag and repeatedly looked at the door. _Can't be caught, don't get caught-_

Travis got everything he needed and ran out of the room. He ducked around a corner right as an agent looked his way. He opened the portal home and ducked in.

He sat down on the ground, once he had shut the portal.

_What? How did they beat her? It was ONE person! ONE!_

The portal flickered as if someone were trying to open it.

_Time to go!_

Travis ran away.

_..-. -....- ..-. -....- ..-. .. .-. . -.-.--_

_Meanwhile…_

Mario looked out to the sea. "Hey, a pirate ship! Cool!"

DK didn't look as happy, though. In fact, he was MAD.

DK grabbed Mario and swung out to the sea. He landed on the beach, where the ship was. An anthropomorphic crocodile with a gold-plated chest and crown stared at them, with one eye WIDE open, as if he were always looking at something interesting.

DK looked mad, as they stared for a good two minutes.

Some of the crew-crocs climbed off and ran toward them.

Mario tightened his gloves. "Should we fight them-"

DK charged in and punched the Kremlings away, one by one. _Guess we are…_

Finally, the crocs, including their king, were a pile of limp things on the beach.

"Can somebody PLEASE help me?" A voice yelled, from the bottom deck of the ship. Mario made his way down, to see Bowser, tied up in a corner.

"Oh, Mario! Never, and I mean NEVER, have I been so excited to see your ugly mustache!"

Mario sighed and untied Bowser. "Finally. Now, let's go, this place makes me sick."

_Back at the house of Kong…_

They looked at the watch.

"There's gotta be a way to take us home, instead of another wacky universe…"

Mario hit a button on the side, enabling a scroll panel. It had random names displayed.

Mario read the names aloud.

"Pokemon… F.E… Xenoblade? What are those?"

He had skipped a beat when Mario read his own name. "There's home!"

He tapped the button. The watch flashed a warning. "Out of range."

The watch auto-scrolled to a name, Kirby.

"Closest to your destination."

Mario looked up at DK. "Well… bye Donkey Kong! Maybe we could meet up again for some karting sometime?"

Toad frowned. "I had to sit in the back and be useless for a while…"

"I was trapped in the basement of a ship at sea."

"I was here with Toad the whole time."

Mario frowned. "If you wanted to come, you should have asked! Besides, we're all going to this Kirby universe next!"

DK waved and stepped back right as Mario hit the button, making them all disappear into thin air.

Mario found himself falling from the sky. Toad was beside him.

Mario fell into a tree, hitting nearly every branch as he landed. Mario fainted.

Mario was woken up to Toad poking his face. "Maaaaaario… Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaario…"

Mario shook himself awake. "Toad… where are we?"

Mario leaned up and looked around. Toad sat down. "We've fallen into some sort of forest…"

Toad looked at the surrounding trees. "Well, what makes ya say that?"

"I dunno, just a feeling."

Toad sighed and stood up, as well as Mario. They were both bruised a little, but they were fine, for the most part.

Right as they had started moving, a voice called from the darkness.

"Who are you?"

_Oh mamma mia…_

Nearby leaves rustled.

Toad picked up the nearest stick as a defense mechanism.

"I said, who are you?"

"It's a me, Mario…?"

A figure stepped out from the bushes. It was in some sort of flowing, black robe, wearing some sort of menacing, scarred iron mask, with suspenseful yellow eyes peering from behind. The voice was low and booming. "How are you here…?"

Mario held back laughter. "What are you supposed to be.." Mario sniggered. "Why are you the shape of a dodgeball-" Mario and Toad fell into howling hysterics.

The figure swung a jagged, golden sword at unfathomable speed, barely missing Mario.

"I said, how are you here."

Mario sweated. " _Uhh….._ "

_.-..-. .... . .----. ... / -.. . .- -.. .-.-.- / .-- .... -.-- / .. ... / - .... . / .... . .- ...- -.-- / -.. . .- -.. ..--.. .-..-._

_Meanwhile…_

Alpha sat down and undid his mask. "Dad, we have finally brought in Amber."

"What have you done?!"

Alpha frowned.

"What have _I_ done? What have you started? Thank goodness that team was able to stop her!"

Omega stood up. "That's. It."

_Outside of the room…_

The Gamma scout was positioned to watch the room that Alpha had gone in. He waited until his cue.

The door opened and Omega, not cuffed anymore, walked out. "Omega, what are you doing?!"

"Escaping. And you're gonna help me."

The scout gave Omega his laser rifle. "What shall I do?"

"Carry him, don't get caught, meet me in the deck."

The scout scooped up the knocked out Alpha, fastened the mask on his head, and ran the other way. Omega grabbed the breach alarm and set it off.

There were agents everywhere. Not many actually stopped to fight Omega, because they were migrating to the interrogation room.

The scout was at the deck, when Omega got there. "Oh, sir! What do we do now?"

"Take the key off of his belt, I know exactly what to do."

The scout tossed Alpha's key to Omega, who ran to the nearest ship. It was in a special spot.

"Ah, Michael's ship. The one he stole. Get in."

Omega opened the ship door and the scout sat Alpha inside, along with himself.

The scout shut the backseat door, while Omega got in the cockpit. "I hope this is fueled correctly…"

He blanched as he started the ship and some agents were running toward it.

"You buckled in back there?"

The scout yelled something that Omega took as a yes.

He turned the ship into hyperspace mode and took off.

The agents and Alpha's assistant watched in abject terror.

"What'll we do now?"

-.-. .- -. / -.-- --- ..- / .... . .- .-. / -- . ..--.. / ..-. .. -. .- .-.. .-.. -.-- --..-- / -.-- --- ..- / -.-. .- -. / .... . .- .-. / -- . -.-.--

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *added code


	11. Dirty Double-Crosser

_1 hour before Alpha's capture and Omega's escape._

The captain laughed giddily as he skipped into the room.

"Hey, Alpha has given us temporary hires!"

Simon perked up instantly. "He's giving us new team members?"

"No, he's letting us pick our own."

A tiny "aww" came from Simon.

"So, we just go home and pick someone to become a teammate?"

The captain glared at 3. "No. You go and find the most able friend you have, make sure that you can trust them, FULLY TRUST THEM. And then we get to meet 'em."

SImon sighed. "I have no friends. Besides you guys, of course."

3 thought about it, while the boys talked.

_Is there anyone I know that can do something cool… I know Travis. We went hunting that one time, he killed several animals, most with his own knife… Didn't he cook them as well? Maybe I should take that up with him later…_

Luigi didn't have any clues either, as Daisy couldn't keep as big a secret, Mario neither, the princess would just get captured and used for bait, Bowser can't do jack for stealth, which is a priority to being an MVP, so far, no one could hold the MVP mantle… but maybe someone else he knew could…

Alph automatically knew who he wanted, and was already trying to go and get them.

The captain sat down four envelopes. "Take your picks wisely. May they choose to, they could become permanent additions to the team."

Alph ran off. Same with 3 and Luigi. Simon sat there, staring at the letter. "Could… could we use that at any time?"

"Yeah, just make sure you tell us beforehand."

"Ok."

Simon stuffed the letter in his pocket.

_With Luigi…_

Luigi dropped from a portal,in the middle of some sort of rock architecture. A toad with red spots, an outfit made for adventure, and a headlamp, jumped back. "L-Luigi?! How did you do that?"

Luigi pulled out the envelope. "Hey, Captain Toad, I need your help."

"Well… let's look at the schedule.." Captain Toad pulled out a schedule. "At 9:00 I call the brigade, at 9:30 I go alone, because the brigade is at home right now, at 10:00 I actually figure out where I go, because I have no clue. Yeah, I'm free."

"Are you sure? Like, some months free?"

"Yeah, the brigade says there's some kingdom issues, so I get a huge break!"

"Cool. Because your adventuring skills are needed somewhere, grab my hand!"

Captain Toad grabbed Luigi's hand and they stepped through the portal.

The captain smiled a little when Captain Toad walked in.

"Captain, my buddy's right here!"

Captain Toad walked up to the captain. "So… this guy's the captain… of what?"

"Well, let me explain it in just a minute, go in that room and sit down. The others should return soon."

Luigi beamed.

"He's a fun guy…"

Seconds later, Alph came back with another Koppaite, this one was a bit taller than Alph, wore pink glasses, ditto hair, and seemed… highly interested in the captain.

"What are you supposed to be? Alph, get the Piklopedia out, this is a new creature!"

"Brittany, this is the captain! We get to work under the same person now!"

Brittany, the lady Koppaite that Alph brought in, didn't seem all that interested until, as Alph claimed, he mentioned the pay and food resources.

After careful instruction by the captain, Brittany left to the room with Captain Toad.

3 returned as well. Some emerald colored inkling fella was beside her. He seemed a bit mad. His hair was messy, he wore an emerald colored sweater and jeans, his sneakers were dirty and he could NOT stop staring at them.

"Guys, this is my friend, Travis."

Travis gave a weird judging stare.

"I'm not exactly sure he can speak human, though…"

The captain sighed. "Take him to the room, I'll give them the instructions."

Travis very quietly mumbled something in human, which Luigi swore he heard.

3 took Travis to the room with the other recruits.

They watched the captain walk in, hop onto the highest platform he could get himself to, and speak.

"Ok, you guys, not identical in many ways, never alike, but in this moment, you are needed more than ever."

Travis internally panicked. _Oh PLEASE tell me this isn't-_

"But today, given you consented it, you become MVPs."

_Nonononononononononono, she's not on the good side, not the good side, no, please-_

3 beamed happily.

_What have you done?_

Travis remained calm. Well, his face and body did, his mind went mad over the fact that he was on both sides of a battle between mortal enemies.

_What would Billy say? What would anyone say?_

"Yes, today we get you guys situated, then…" The captain stopped to look at a message. "Alpha's gone. He's been kidnapped- Ok, please make our guests at home, whilst I deal with this…"

The captain grabbed his things and ran out.

_15 minutes later…_

Travis sat in silence, thinking to himself.

_Now I have to uphold TWO jobs, uphold double the secrets and, even better-_

The captain walked in with a familiar green-spotted toad.

Travis and Billy locked eyes for a second. Billy's countenance instantly went to a frown.

Travis mouthed the words, _I'm sorry._

Billy scowled and looked away.

_And there it goes. I lose one friend who likes to run his mouth. Now what?_

3 plopped beside Travis, on the couch.

"What's wrong with you? You're staring off into space. It's creeping me out."

"Oh, nothing… just have to process this whole thing, that's all."

"Well, maybe you will have to learn…" 3 counted on her fingers for a second. "About 557 different languages, but standard testing only makes you learn 225! And you know…"

"One"

3's face went flat upon hearing that. "Well, at least we work together…?"

They sat in silence for a second. Travis occasionally glanced toward 3, but looked away when she looked back.

_Meanwhile.._

Alph felt himself get dragged away for a second.

Brittany nervously tapped her fingers together.

"Alph, who are any of these… _things_ you've brought me to? Most of them are taller than me!"

Alph smiled. "Not exactly, I'm shorter than you."

"That does not help. The scientist part of me is highly turned on right now, because I don't know any of them!"

"Well, let me introduce you-"

"Are you entirely sure they are safe?"

Alph glanced to the side, as if he were thinking.

"Yes. If you don't tick them off. Because I care for your health, do not anger them. They're fun once you get to know them."

"Yes, but, if it weren't clear, I do not know any of them."

"I know them. I had to sit here with them for a while now, so I know they won't harm you. But I feel a different way about the green Inkling, he just gives off some sort of… malicious vibe…"

Brittany was gone.

_·- ··-· ··- ·-·· ·-·· -·-· --- -- -- ·· - -- · -· - ·· ··· ·-- ···· ·- - ·· ·----· -- - ···· ·· -· -·- ·· -· ·----· --- ··-·_

_Meanwhile, meanwhile…_

Mario kept questioning what he and Toad had been told.

"So, you're some sort of Mater Knight-"

"Meta knight."

"Mate Knight, and we are in Kirbyland-"

"Dreamland."

"Whatever it's called, where the king is named King Dededede-"

"Dedede. 3 de's."

"Dededede, and the hero is a somehow heroic piece of pink bubble gum-"

"Star warrior. He is a star warrior."

"Yeah, what you said, and he fights to stop dark matters from occurring-"

"He fights to stop Dark Matter."

"By sucking enemies and-"

Meta knight shuddered before speaking. "No, he sucks them UP. UP. Not… that."

"And becoming them… wait… what if he sucked up a lawyer? Would he then be forced to shapeshift into this innocent lawyer-"

" _And copying their abilities._ "

"Oh, now that makes sense."

Meta Knight sighed. "Yes, you understand now?"

"From what I got…" Mario and Toad exchanged glances. "Somewhat."

"Something is indeed better than nothing… Come with me."

Mario and Toad followed the orb-like warrior through the forest, and into a colorful village.

The creatures there, Waddle Dees, had no mouths. Mario approached one.

"How do you eat without a mouth?"

The Waddle Dee, presumably taking that offensive, replied, frustrated. "It's complicated."

"How do you talk without a mouth?"

"It's still complicated."

Mario gave up and went back to the knight and Toad.

"Why did you come here, again?"

Mario remembered what happened. "Well, because we got transported to another world, where we then survived off of fruit and nothing else for about a week, and then we teleported here. We're trying to make it home, but it doesn't seem to be working."

Meta Knight, as if he just understood, nodded slowly.

They passed a few houses, where some exotic creatures waved and whatnot. Mario was interested in how their hands worked without arms that connected to their bodies, but was never able to ask.

Soon, they neared a large castle, sitting on top of a large peak.

"Woah… Is this King Dededede's castle?" Mario looked up at the magnificent castle.

"Yes, this is King Dedede's castle. Apparently one of your friends landed here as well."

Mario perked up instantly. "Is it the princess?"

"No, unless a huge, fire-breathing turtle is a princess."

Mario sighed, but something was better than nothing, so he continued walking.

Once they reached the top, Meta Knight told them to stay still, while he spoke to the guards.

Toad touched the watch Mario had stolen. "What even is this thing?"

"Well, it's a watch, but tailor made for a toad hand, that's for sure… It's giving me aches."

"Then let a toad wear it, if it's made for toads…"

Mario looked at the watch.

"I don't know about that, but it doesn't seem adjustable, and cramps aren't doing me well, so…"

Mario gave Toad the watch. "Just don't send yourself somewhere stupid, not without us, okay?"

Toad nodded, but couldn't take his eyes off that watch.

Finally, Meta Knight let them into the castle, where Waddle Dees worked and cooked and cleaned. They were everywhere.

Mario followed Meta Knight into the throne room, where a huge penguin-like creature, presumably King Dedede, sat, speaking to Bowser.

"So, I took the chest, but then some weird demon possessed me. It sucked."

Bowser gasped. "So, you got possessed how many times?"

"Well… uhh… I actually don't know the answer to that question. It's happened a lot."

The king looked from Bowser to Meta Knight. "Ay, Meta Knight! This guy's a king too!"

Meta Knight stepped forward. "Your majesty, I have found more guests."

Mario looked up. King Dedede was very large. Very large.

"Mario! There you are!" Bowser ran to Mario. "This is the dork I speak of. We're stuck here, so we have to work together, until we can get home."

"Well, Mr. Mario, it's a pleasure!" Dedede shook Mario's hand.

Toad frowned. "Ok, nice meeting up and all, but we're still missing the princess!"

Dedede leaned in and whispered to Mario. "Who's the big head?"

"That's Toad. He got teleported with us."

"He sure don't look like a toad, but okay…"

Toad sighed and rolled his eyes. "I said, we still don't have the princess!"

Mario looked to Dedede, who stroked his chin. "Well, there was a pink-dressed human in the woods earlier, but the townsfolk say that she was scooped up by Ol' Whispy, which, in our town, is not good."

Mario sighed. "Where is this Whispy? I'm going to have a word with this-"

Dedede stopped Mario from walking out. "Woah, woah, calm down, mustachio! Whispy ain't a nice guy when it comes to taking from him."

Meta Knight stepped in. "Whispy Woods is a tree."

"A tree? You mean to tell me that my princess is taken captive by _A TREE?!_ " Bowser roared, in anger.

"Hold on, now, this ain't your normal tree… it's alive. He's also very hostile and possessive. Suicide comes easy when you take Whispy's things. I think poor Jerry learned that very fast..."

"But we can't leave without her!" Mario exclaimed.

"Well, then we're gonna have to ask Whispy. And by "we", I mean YOU. I have kingly duties to attend to-"

A Waddle Dee came up to the king. "Your Majesty, what would you like for lunch?"

"Uhh… Do you have any more of them ramen noodles?"

"Yes, which flavor?"

"Ya know, the authentic kind, but bring it to me fresh."

"Authentic ramen, hot and ready. We'll be right back with your lunch."

"Thank ya. Now, where was I?"

"You were explaining your kingly duties?"

"Oh, yes. That. Whispy'll give it back if you approach right. But… most of the time you'll just have to beat it out of him… Wait. Maybe…"

Dedede looked around for a second. "If you… well… AY META KNIGHT?"

"Yes, your Majesty?"

"Where's Kirby gone to? Maybe he could help these folks out."

"Last I heard, he was out in the Green Greens with Bandanna, having a picnic."

"That's not far from Whispy Woods. Meta Knight will lead you in finding Kirby and saving tha princess."

Meta Knight looked between them. "Red, come with me. You two, stay here. The lunchroom should be open soon."

"Yeah! I'll have the waddles make extra ramen."

Mario followed the knight out of the throne room and into the village again.

"So… where's this Kirby?"

"Kirby should be… that way."

"Then let's go save a princess."

·-- ···· --- ·-·· ·· ···- · ··· --··-- ·-- ···· --- -·· ·· · ··· --··-- ·-- ···· --- - · ·-·· ·-·· ··· -·-- --- ··- ·-· ··· - --- ·-· -·-- 

_Back with the agents…_

Travis walked into Billy's cell.

Billy shot a tiny glare. "It's you."

Travis felt an unnecessary amount of guilty. "Billy, please, I didn't know my friend was an MVP-"

"Oh, save it. First Amber, the wasteful, to you. The betrayer."

"I did not intentionally betray you, I'm trying to tell you that-"

"You did betray us. You wanna know why? Because, if you were still on my side, you'd have done everything in your power to sabotage and stop them."

"Billy, that's not easy, I'm trusted as one of them now, so I can't get away with what I used to."

"Traitor. First, a wasteful idiot. Now you. A slick, self-centered, scoundrel."

Travis sighed and paced back and forth. "Billy, I'm not trying to be your enemy-"

"You are now. And nothing, _nothing,_ is going to change that."

Travis felt himself panicking, as he tried to get on good terms with Billy.

"I can't lose any more of my friends-"

Billy scoffed. "What? I thought you had no friends, just faked and killed 'em. Besides, you've lost me. Unless you have someone else."

"Not exactly, this one's… a tough case."

" _Oh, so a girlfriend then?_ Well, your girlfriend will be very disappointed when she hears that her lover is on both sides of a war between sworn enemies."

"She's not my girlfriend, just a close buddy…"

"Either way, someone's not getting out of here, and, with the way I'm hearing you, it's not gonna be me."

Travis put his hand on the glass. "You don't say a word or else-"

"Or what? You're gonna kill me? Go ahead."

"No, I can't-... But... _ARGH!"_

Billy smiled smugly. "I mean, if you're gonna kill me, do it now, I've got places to be!"

Travis gripped his messy tentacles and thought for a moment. _That little scamp will put me on blast because he firmly believes I betrayed him. I. DID. NOT. BETRAY. HIM!_

Luigi watched from the surveillance cams, thinking as he watched Billy and Travis argue.

_What the heck is going on?_

Travis slammed the glass. "Shut up. I'm not going to let you just rat me out, like I didn't know you once."

"But you can't do anything if I do rat you out, because we'll be in separate cells."

Travis turned and walked toward the door, but turned and looked at Billy. Billy scowled. "Go on. Leave. Leave me behind, like you did at the stadium. Leave everyone behind. It's the thing you're best at, clearly…"

Travis left.

Once he went outside, he turned and saw Luigi, exiting the camera room.

Luigi went to his own room, but turned and nearly screamed when Travis was directly behind him.

"How much of that did you hear?"

Luigi shivered as Travis got closer. "Come on. Tell me. Spill it, greenie."

Luigi didn't answer. Travis's face went from a convincing smile to a serious stare.

"Talk to me, now. Don't play dumb, don't lie. Just tell me. How much did you hear…?"

"How much did I hear of what-"

Travis slammed the door, leaving them in darkness, but Luigi remained silent.

"I told you not to play dumb. But, given you're playing dumb, you heard everything."

Luigi's eyes grew wide as he saw the glint of metal in the dark.

"If that gets out to anyone else… well…"

Luigi felt a cold, metallic object touch his neck. "Your brother wouldn't be happy to find you in pieces, would he?"

Luigi blinked and Travis was already gone. Luigi sighed a sigh of relief and walked out. 3 and Simon were watching TV.

Travis had gone home.

Luigi looked around in a fit of anxiety. _Mario…_

_·· -· ··· --- ···- ·· · - ·-· ··- ··· ··· ·· ·- --··-- -- ·- ·-· ·· --- -··· · -·-· --- -- · ··· -- · ·- - -··· ·- ·-·· ·-·· !_

_1 hour later…_

Simon entered the interrogation room, where Billy sat, and sat down.

"So, we have… nothing in our files for your name, so we're going to call you Green."

Green, or Billy, frowned. "What do you want?"

"Just a few questions."

Billy smiled at the window of glass at the side of the room, where everyone else watched.

"I know a few things you might want to know…"

" _Like?"_

Billy did a tiny giggle. "Well, I know the names of everyone I worked with, where they lived, and even what they liked to eat."

"...well? Tell me, maybe it'll make this go faster-"

"But Travis knows too. Isn't that right?" Billy chuckled, looking straight through the one-way glass, and into Travis's soul.

Travis looked to the left, where Luigi silently panicked, 3 gave a questioning stare, and the captain put a small grip on his taser.

"...what?"

Billy laughed. "You know, Travis! Your new recruit! Don't think he's just innocent, we worked together, for Gamma. He knows, ask him."

Travis felt a panic attack rising. 3 was about to take action. Luigi was badly trying to act inconspicuous.

"But… how did he get in here, we ran a background check, he was clear!"

Billy fiddled with the plate of donuts on the table. "You can't just run a background check and find out who's an MVP and who's not. Besides, he knows, I tell ya! But, it's not like he's going to tell you. Betcha he's scared for his life, behind the glass."

Travis, who was intensely scared for his life, slowly inched his hand toward the doorknob.

"Even better, he's the serial killer the whole Inkling world's got on blast! Have you seen him in action?! It's a beautiful thing. He was also the one who roughed up your pals, the green one and the orange?"

Travis turned and the whole room had their eyes on him. Luigi was shaking. 3 looked like she was about to absolutely kill the crap out of Travis. The captain was ready to shock Travis.

"And, for kicks, I killed singer kiddo. What was his name?"

"Janet…? You killed him?"

"Well, it was supposed to be a mind-wipe. Poor kid had his Airpods ™ in and crossing waves shredded the heck out of his brain. It took months, I calculated, for his mind to degenerate into a drooping sag of nothing. Anyway, back to the dirty double crosser at hand, sort of a dark green color, about yea high, always has his arms crossed or is drinking something,"

Travis put his arms down from crossing them and tried to be as non-affiliated with the cup of coffee near him.

"Yeah, he was my best buddy, too. Sadly, it was revealed that he had taken a job here, betraying everyone he's worked with. Also sadly, he's on neither side, because you're gonna kill him, right?!"

Billy spoke with a rabid excitement, a demented smile across his face.

Travis looked to everyone else. "I can explain."

"You were everywhere we went." 3 mumbled, shakily.

Luigi was shook as well. "Please don't kill us."

Travis tried to cast a PSI move. He was out of power to do this, so he looked at them.

"You were the killer… the… the one who killed the guy at the restaurant, it was you?"

"You need to calm down, I can explain everything-"

The captain had the taser in his hand now. Travis backed slowly.

"Come on, that toad doesn't know anything! Maybe he was talking about someone else?"

The door opened and Simon stood there, with his arms crossed. "Oh really? Because his explanation was enough for me to get my bearings and proof. Proof that it was you."

Travis felt a jolting sensation in his back; the captain had shocked him.

Travis fainted. He looked through the glass, to see a wicked smile come from Billy.

\- ···· · -··· ·· --· ···· --- ··- ··· · ··-· --- ·-· ·--· --- --- ·-· --- ·-·· -·· - -····- -··· --- -· · ...

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *realized what the heck I was doing I'm not supposed to be on a break lol  
> *Added code


	12. What You Did

3 looked at the cell, when Travis finally woke up. He immediately stood, walked up to the glass and put his hands on it.

"Listen to me, you need to let me out-"

"Tell me the truth. Were you the one who did all of that?"

"...was it me? Was it me? By now, I'd believe that you'd know if it were me, of course it was me!"

"You nearly killed me, could have killed me, could have killed anyone else, but….why didn't you?"

Travis's eyes went from a pleading, sorry, regretful pose, to a cold, malevolent stare.

"Because of you. I refrained from killing you because you were the most trusted, most… gullible, easy tricked, stupid, being. Of course, I wasn't tricking you every time, but you wouldn't believe how many lies have saved me. Saved me from having to free your head from it's shoulders."

"So… you killed your own parents, all of your siblings, everyone who dared step in your way… but not me? That's unfair to a lot of families!"

Travis scoffed. "I could care less. It was them who stepped up, them who died dishonorable deaths. Not my fault, theirs."

"How could you do this? They had families that expected them to come home, you just come in and brutally murder them, because they mistreat you?"

"Yeah, seems about right."

"Were you going to kill me, like you did everyone else you were 'friends' with?"

"No. Because we were truly friends. I hated Lisa. Marley deserved it. I don't think I've ever even had a real friend…" Travis turned back to face 3 again, because he had paced around and wasn't even facing her anymore. "Except you."

"What even caused this? Was it me?"

"Oh, it wasn't you. It was my parents. They outcast me first. But, as you can see, no depression here. In fact, I wasn't sad. I wasn't asking if it was my fault. I didn't ask because I knew it was my fault. I knew that forgiveness and forgetting existed. Sadly, forgive and forget was the last thing I wanted them to do. I wanted to see their souls compacted into dust and ash. I wanted them gone from my life."

"Is that why you did everything?"

"What do you mean by 'everything'? Because I had specific reasons for what I did."

"What did you do to your parents?"

"Why, that's not a story for little 'uns, are you sure?" Travis sat down. "Because it includes some blood."

"Whatever gets me to the bottom of this."

He smiled. "Ok. I went to their were sleeping and I wished to the highest deities that I had my knife, because they were in for it. Anyway, I went to the closet and nabbed the gaming guns they had when they participated in social games and events. Either was nearly empty. I grabbed one. They had woken up at this point and were calling me things like 'miscreant'. I shot them both straight in their faces. Then I shanked about two of my siblings, the rest hid in a room, I blew them to pieces and lived life, content as can be."

3 sat there, completely surprised. "Then it was you… I don't believe it… It was you the whole time. Every slip in our plans, it was you. The man who nearly killed me. That was you."

"Hey, I wasn't aware that those agents were you and Mr. 'Stachio there. I'm kinda safe in that department…"

3 left the room. Travis sat back down to think about his life decisions.

Travis turned to see Luigi in the room next. "Oh, here to complete your death wish?"

"No. I'm asking if you know where my brother is."

"Well, my friend of the past knew but probably forgot, but I-..."

Travis got an idea. A terrible, horrible, deplorable, idea. "...know where he went. But you gotta let me go."

"Then so be it. But you have to tell me where he went, ok? Do you promise?"

Travis held back the largest fit of laughter ever as he looked to the lunch tray he was served earlier. _Methinks the fork will suffice…_

"I promise."

Luigi pressed the button to open the door. The instant Luigi opened the door, Travis grabbed the fork, tackled Luigi and pinned him down to the floor.

3 and Simon jumped off the couch when they heard a loud noise from the cells.

Travis had Luigi pinned to the floor and was trying to impale his eye with the fork.

Right before the fork actually went into Luigi's eye, 3 grabbed Travis and threw him off. He flew farther than she expected.

Simon helped Luigi up, while Travis stood and smiled. "I knew you wouldn't let me leave unannounced. Sadly, I DO have places to be, so move."

Simon took Luigi out, and 3 stood her ground. "No. I'm not moving. You're going to stay here," 3 cracked her knuckles, "or I'm going to die before you ever get to leave this place."

"So be it."

Travis lay on the floor, unconscious, after a long tussle between them.

3 nodded slowly and softly mumbled, "And stay down, liar."

Travis was knocked out, on the floor.

Luigi got close. "Wow… he fought good, for such a skinny thing."

3 chuckled a little at that remark.

_\-- ·· ---- ·- · ·-·· ·----· ··· - ·-· ··- · ··-· ·- -·-· · ._

_Meanwhile…_

Alpha woke up, unmasked and tied up.

"Where am I? I demand to know-"

"Stop complaining, you're safe!" Omega strutted in, from the front of the room.

"Safe?! Does any of this look safe to you?"

Alpha stopped to look at the room. Indeed, it was pretty empty. "Oh."

"From what I see, yes. It's safe."

Alpha sighed and looked up. "Where's your henchmen? Your assistants?"

"In containment cells. Only a select few actually remain in touch. And that's a slim few, nonetheless."

Alpha kicked and pulled at the ties on his hands, keeping him bound to the chair.

"You let me go, right now! I have loyal teams probably searching right now!"

"Yeah, no, they aren't searching, they're deciding where to search. This place is too hidden in the universe to be found."

Alpha coughed and noticed the sudden smell. "What is that?"

"Oh, nothing. Just a prisoner we had to dispose of. Unfortunately, we couldn't put him down, so we had to roast him, the old-fashioned way. I tell ya, his hairline was nonexistent." Omega stopped to laugh, before continuing. "I'm going to propose a trade. You, for certain troops back on my field."

Alpha laughed. "That's not gonna work. I was the one who single handedly-"

"-Cheated your way out of paying the bills 13 times. I know, but this is a different trade. I meant to say that I'd trade _your dust_ for _the rest of_ my troops."

"You wouldn't dare."

Omega drew a knife. "Oh, but you said it yourself, you're not my son."

" _Oh go figure._ "

During this talk, Alpha had taken out his pocket knife and was grinding at the ties.

The second his right hand was loose, he jerked his left hand out and attacked. Unfortunately, his attack didn't go anywhere, because Omega was leaving the room, so he looked very stupid for a second.

_Shoot._

_··-· ·- ·-·· -·-· --- -· ·--· ·- ·-- -· -····- --- ···· ._

_Meanwhile…_

Travis hopped up. He was standing in a cell again. He was going to attempt escape again, but quickly perished the thought and looked bored until someone came in for him to kill.

It took forever for someone to arrive, so Travis took a moment to remember what he could.

_13 years ago…_

14 year old Travis walked the streets, not exactly homeless, but really lonely.

He turned and instantly felt himself tense up.

His neighbor, the purple-colored brother of one of the poor bullies he jacked up with his knife, was in front of him now.

"I know it was you, kid. What did you do to my brother?"

Travis looked to his left. No one there. To his right. No one was watching. He conceived a plan with the two seconds he had to think.

"I know where he is. Follow me."

Travis led the poor brother to his house and unlocked the door. "Go in. He's in the basement.."

The guy walked in, and Travis shut the door behind them.

20 minutes later, a nearby jogger heard noises from the house and bothered to open the door.

He walked in and the door slammed behind him. He turned and locked eyes with a mess of what used to be a purple inkling in the corner and felt the sudden shock as he saw a kitchen knife go right through his chest.

\- ·- ·-·· -·- ·- -··· --- ··- - ·- ·--· ·· · ·-· -·-· ·· -· --· * ·-- ···· · · --·· · *

_Present…_

Travis felt the rush just thinking about it, but quickly snapped out of it and saw Luigi tapping on the glass.

"What is it now, booger?"

Luigi glanced at the camera and smiled. "It's me. Mr. L. I can't understand you, but I need you to come with me, okay?"

"No, yeti lip."

"I'll take that as a yes." L opened the door and put Travis in cuffs.

"Let's go, before the guys return. Do you know where Greenie is?"

Travis made a look of complete and total agony, but L took him away to the ship. L's cruiser wasn't far, but Travis had to wade through space to get in. L returned with Billy, a few minutes later.

"I hate you."

Billy smiled. "Good to see that your waifu didn't smash your skull in."

" _Well, I hate you more, just for that._ "

Mr. L said no warning, just shot the cruiser into hyper drive, sending Travis all the way back.

Omega was happy to see Travis back, but Billy had some words to spew.

"Ah! Mr. Squaller! Welcome back!"

" _Yeah, Mr. Squatter, tell them how you betrayed us!_ "

Travis glared at Billy, a desire to choke the life outta that good-for-nothing scamp.

"What?" Omega's face shifted quickly.

"Yeah, Travis betrayed us!"

" _NO, I didn't betray you, it was an accident-"_

"No, no, let Bill talk."

Billy smiled. "Ok. Well, when I was captured, I saw Travis with some girl and his MVP teammates! He looked ME directly in the eyes and that did it for sure, when we spoke again, he told me several times that the girl he was with was a "tough case" and I think he's a sucker for women, which is why his _DIRTY, BACKSTABBING BEHIND_ deserves a guillotine!"

Omega frowned. "I wasn't listening, say that again."

"Travis dumped us for his wife."

Travis sighed and growled, "She's not my wife."

"Ah, the things we do for love-"

" _I SAID, SHE'S. NOT. MY. WIFE."_

Billy chuckled. " _Oh, he's so busted._ "

"Is this true, Mr. Squaller?"

Travis stopped eyeing Billy to reply. "It wasn't a betrayal, it was different than that, I was on their side because-"

Travis screamed and collapsed, as Omega switched to a serious face and shot him with a stun gun. "All I wanted to hear. Lock him up. I can't stand traitors."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Am Back  
> *Added code


	13. A Little Break From The Fire

_6 years earlier…_

Luigi treaded slowly. "Is this a good idea? No, no it isn't."

The captain laughed over the comms. "Well, this guy's our new member. We could either hire him and have higher chances of living in a battle, or we could drop this and never see the light of day again because we were lacking in members."

"Ok, ok, I get it, but I'm kinda wandering through a forest. There's nothing to-"

Luigi shut his trap when he saw a trail. "Which way, cap?"

"Right is always right."

"That's not true." Luigi spitefully went left.

30 minutes of Luigi walking finally ended up with him going somewhere. A sole house lay in a clearing.  
"Cap…I think I found it, and more importantly, because right was wrong."

"Shut up, my father said that, and he was very wise."

Luigi snickered. "Wise. Yeah right. Or, should I say, left."

"He's passed away."

Luigi shut up. After getting over the guilt of making fun of a dead person, Luigi regained composure and did the task. The house was like a weird, wooden cabin. It was sturdy, hadn't creaked yet.. One of the windows were lit up, but then it happened. Luigi stepped on a stair and it released the sound of dread. A long, winding, creak. The light, almost as if it itself had heard the creak, cut off.

" _Oh mamma mia._ "

Luigi slowly tried avoiding any more creaks, single handedly creaking every stair he stepped on because he was terrified.

Luigi slowly pushed open the nearest window and climbed through. The house was silent. Luigi, yet again, was treading slowly. " _Cap, I don't think anyone's here. Maybe we should just give up? This place is creepy._ "

"Luigi, I know he's here. Don't forget that I can hear everything you've done up to this point, I heard everything. I heard you creak all of the stairs, I heard the floor creak behind you, I even heard-"

" _You heard WHAT?!_ "

Luigi threw up his hood and mask and whirled around. Nothing awaited him back there.

The captain was laughing through the comms. "Oh man, I didn't think you'd fall for that!"

Luigi mocked the captain but turned back around, took another step, and THEN he heard the floor creak behind him.

He whirled around and was pinned to the wall by a man with a knife. "Who are you?!"

Luigi started hyperventilating as he slowly raised his hands.

The man raised the knife to Luigi's face. "I said, who are you?"

"Simon, what's going on?" A voice called from down the hall.

"If you don't answer in the next five seconds, I will free your shoulders of that extra weight you call a head."

Luigi stopped panting rapidly. "I will answer, but please, for all that is holy, put the knife down!"

The man(or, for those who haven't gotten it quite together yet, non-MVP Simon,) slowly lowered the knife. "Tell me who you are or leave my house."

"Ok, listen, Mr…"

"Simon. Simon Shallows."

"Mr. Simon, can we keep the tone at a whisper, I'd hate to say something weird and, without context, creepy, near your… sister. Is that your sister back there?"

"Get to the point."

"Yes, yes, anyway, I have a… job opportunity for you. It's a bit dangerous."

"You're speaking to the guy who's killed a bear with a hunting knife before. What is it?"

"Well… if you're a cultured New Donk citizen, you'd have heard of the rumors of the MVPs, right?"

"I've heard fairly enough, what does that have to do with you breaking into my house?"

Luigi sighed and tried to explain it the best he could. "Ok, I am an agent of the MultiVerse Patrol, or MVP. We work to protect the universe and are running low on members."

"What's in it for me?"

"Also, you keep what you steal or earn and we add whatever spoils you get to your pay. The pay is…"

Luigi tried to remember the pay he had when he first started. "...raise the one… 200. Per hour and that's for beginners. Also it's not exactly counted in hours, but that's to be explained. You in?"

Simon's mouth was hanging open. "2… 200 per hour…? F-for what? What do we do as MVPs?"

"Oh, you know, hang out with creatures from all over the universe, until something shows up. In which you flaunt your combat skills as you crack some nuts."

"Is this legit? You aren't playing some sick joke? If that were the case, I'd kill you anyway."

Luigi undid his mask and hood. "Only one way to find out…"

Simon stared in awe, his jaw hanging wide open.

Luigi felt a sense of pride. "Surprising, isn't it?"

" _Man, your head is so disproportionate, like an upside-down pear._ "

Luigi sighed and put his hood back on. "Are you in or not?"

"It seems legit. Count me in."

Luigi stuck out his hand. "Welcome to the team, Mr. Shallows."

Simon ignored Luigi's handshake prompt and ran to the back room. "Sorry, I have to deal with my sister real quick…"

Luigi went outside and heard the captain clapping. "Nicely done, Luigi. The use of the 200 pay was cool, but did you tell him about the oaths and secrecy?"

" _Oh… oops."_

"It should be fine, he shouldn't tell anyone. Unless there's somebody else in the house, in which we should probably mind-wipe them."

Luigi looked over at Simon, who was getting his coat on.

"I think he's fine. We'll be there soon."

Luigi switched off the comms and looked at Simon. "Ok, follow me. The ship's a good distance away and we have to walk."

Simon nodded and they began walking.

During the walk, Simon asked various questions, like, "how does it feel to have a head so disproportionate?" "how big is your brain?" and even, "do you use your head to break the blocks or your fist, _because that head looks like it's taken some hits._ "

And then, 2 years later…

Luigi turned and saw a line of recruits walk past. He looked at each individual one. The captain was watching too.

"Do you think one of those's ours?"

Luigi shrugged. "Out of all of them, we only brought in one."

The captain sighed. "Yeah… I think we're not getting anything today, but-"

Alpha stepped in front of the line of recruits and turned on a wireless mic. "Hello, MVPs! Today, becoming an annual thing, is Recruits day! It's almost self-explanatory, where we gather the recruits, but I assign them. Unfortunately, this is about two thirds of the recruits we originally had, because some were taken in through…" He paused and slowly tapped his fingers together. " _Harmful measures,_ but I assure you, it's not that much of a loss…"

He turned around and tried to hide his nagging disappointment in the numbers.. " _Ok, maybe it is, but we still have new members and that's what counts._ Anyway, the first recruit is…"

Luigi turned and saw that the captain was at the salad bar over in the corner, speaking to some other captains.

The recruits would be picked, and sent to their teams. It was cool, until Luigi zoned out, came back and saw the captain up there with Alpha.

"My friend, you brought this one in close to the last second, but it's all good, because he's got the highest sword and blade score out there. With a blades score of 169% out of 175, this is Simon Shallows!"

Simon walked in from the line and to the captain's side. Alpha announced several other names, clapping ensued, blah blah blah.

After the announcements, the captain and Simon came from the stage and the captain had left to the salad bar again.

Luigi nearly jumped out of his skin as he noticed Simon beside him.

"Nice party, isn't it?"

"Y-yeah, congrats, by the way, I didn't think you were so good with blades…"

"Meh. Wasn't that hard. I was trained at a young age. Didn't work until I saw the fun of hacking away at random wooden things. Many people called it an obsession, I call it a hobby…"

Luigi sat there in an awkward silence. Simon left to speak with the other recruits.

···· ·· -- . - ···· ·- - ·----· ··· ·-- ···· -·-- ·· ·----· -- ··· - ··- -·-· -·- ···· · ·-· · .

_The Mushroom Kingdom, 1 year earlier…_

A lone green toad ran through the streets. No one actually knew his name, but everyone knew the name he wanted. That would be Billy.

Billy, who was 17 at this point, darted down the streets of the kingdom as fast as he could. He had heard of a commotion with the princess, and wanted to see his share of the event. He reached the plaza to see Mario in the center. "Ok, listen! I am going to save the princess again!"

Billy rolled his eyes and jumped to see the hero from over the heads of toads. Mario was leaving. Billy brainstormed and an idea was formed. Billy decided to go to bed that night, but wrote what he could down.

The next day, Billy ran to the castle and requested a visit with the one in Peach's place. That would be Toadsworth. Him, and the counsel that helps Peach make her decisions.

They looked over the plan again. "Child, what have you done? This is the work of a genius… I'm for it!"

The rest of the counsel and Toadsworth looked at the plan.

"A brilliant plan indeed… It prevents the princess from getting captured and presents measures for a war… but, young sir, I must ask… where is Master Mario included in this?"

Billy tapped his fingers together. "That's… being thought through…"

"You know her majesty enjoys Mario's protection… it'd be a shame for everyone but her to want this. We will do a community vote, after a few days of announcing and getting responses, of course."

Billy beamed. A spark of pride gleamed within him.

"...well then, we appreciate the thought of such a… vibrant, unique plan of government and protection… it's going to do wonders for us, that's for sure. No more Bowser attacks!"

Billy waved and left the castle, a wide smile on his face. _Finally, my work pays off! The on;y flaw is Mario. Literally, that pasta-chugging idiot doesn't deserve my work. I like his sandwich-needing brother more than him._

Billy did some errands and went home. As he sat down, he thought about everything. How he would be in the history books, how even Mario, the spitting image of cow manure, would appreciate him. Bowser wouldn't stand a chance against the well-placed troops and awesome safehouse he had said about in his plan.

A week passed. He had heard that Mario was to return, and wanted to be there ahead of time. As he arrived, Toadsworth pulled him aside. "Boy, have you roped in Mario yet?"

"Oh, it's in the works…" Billy lied. " I just have to run it by Princess Peach before everything passes."

Toadsworth smiled. "Such a smart child, you are. I think that Mario and the princess would both enjoy-"

"The princess is home! Mario's returning!"

Billy sat and watched as Mario paraded Peach through town and into the castle.

Toadsworth grabbed Billy's arm. "I'm going to tell them about the plan. The new age of the Mushroom Kingdom has begun!"

_3 days later…_

Billy sat anxiously, as he waited to see the princess. He was terrified. He had never directly spoken about business before, so it was an honor to be there.

Toadsworth came in. "The princess wants to see you now, son."

Billy shook as he walked toward the throne room. "Do- do I have anything on me? Do I look good?"

"No worries, boy, she seems interested! Master Mario is here too!"

Billy entered the room and instantly felt the gaze of journalists and groups alike, staring down at him.

"Good evening, your m-majesty… I assume your colleague has filled you in on the government plan I had made?" _You're doing good, just stay calm and collected and maybe-_

"Yes, I know what you mean… but-" Billy panicked internally. "Where does Mario come in?"

Mario, who was sitting nearby, stood up. "Yeah, aren't I included?"

"I'm not sure where he will go, but he's like... " _Think, use that head for good!_ "A backup plan."

Peach and Mario both seemed offended. "A backup plan?"

Mario's countenance turned mean. "I am no backup plan! I'm the hero! I should be leading!"

Peach just said things like, "Yeah!" "I agree!" and, " _ooh…_ "

Billy squinted. "Is the plan going into action or not?"

Peach stood and silenced the crowds and Billy as well. "I think that your plan is a great plan, includes great aspects, but I don't trust it without Mario."

Mario stood up again. "Yeah, and what if Bowser's got freaky powers again? Would attacking from behind and around do anything?"

Billy shook off something pulling, prodding at him. "Yes, if we cooperated and-"

Peach silenced him again. "Listen. You're a nice kid, but… well… I- uhh-"

"I _HATE_ your plan! I'm the hero, not you, with the big head! Go home, kid!" Mario yelled.

"Mario, stop-" Peach tried to calm Mario, but no one noticed Billy. Billy looked around. _There went my plan. My brilliance, my chance to go down in history as the guy who saved the toads and the princess. There it went, replaced by…_

"An idiot."

Mario and Peach turned to Billy. "A _what?_ "

"Why…" Billy felt something. It was his patience. His way of staying calm. It snapped. "Why… _it's all of you!_ All of you thick headed toads know nothing of greatness, all we do is sit in the background and be useless! Like our princess, useless! All we ever do is let Mario do everything! We're putting our hopes, our safety, our MONARCHY! We're dumping it into the hands of what? A man whose hands are already deep in crap water?!"

"Billy, that is quite enough from you-"

"NO! I refuse to let my plan die like YOU will when Mario can't save you from Bowser! No one here is my level! Mario, look me in the eye and say you can amount to me. Because you can't. Your head contains Peach rule 34 and a savage desire to fu-"

Toadsworth ran in and silenced Billy himself. "Boy, please, she only means well-"

"All she means is harm for the kingdom! How many times must it happen, before we get it through our heads that MARIO, the idiotic piece of red-stained garbage, who knows nothing of uselessness, all he ever does is make us cheer! AND FOR WHOM?! Himself!"

Mario was ready to strangle Billy. "Hey, kid! Nobody wanted your plan, get over it!"

"Not anymore. And who's fault is that? YOURS. I'm leaving this kingdom. I'm dropping the plan, letting it burn…"

Mario shrugged, but Peach felt a tad sorry. "Hey, wait!"

"Wait? I had to wait. Wait for you to ruin my life."

Peach watched as Billy left. "...he's a smart toad… maybe we could use him?"

_The next day…_

Billy walked through town, but nothing felt the same. Everywhere he went, they stared with bitter enmity. He tried to go into shops, but they didn't let him in. After being rejected, Billy went and, after getting all of his gadgets and unfinished inventions, he heard a knock on the door. Two toad guards were there. "Ah, there you are! The princess requests your presence, please come with us!"

Billy slowly backed up. "What's she trying to get from me? All she cares about is Mario, but you don't see it, because you're all the same stupid toad."

The guards looked behind Billy.

"That may be true," Billy whirled around, Peach and Mario were there. "But your ideas can help us."

Billy quickly stepped to Peach's side, where he wasn't trapped between Peach and the guards.

"What do you want? Haven't you cursed me enough?"

"I didn't curse you, but maybe we could help each other?"

Mario stepped forward. "Yeah, maybe you could use your skills to make the castle glamorous, or something."

Billy felt offended. "I hate waste. Your second castle, yeah, I know about that, was a waste of time and space. You, Mario, are a waste of air! The whole toad world would be so happy without either of you!"

"Please, we only want to help you-"

"You only want ME to help you! If you don't care about any of your citizens, except for the special ones, maybe we need a new form of leadership!"

Mario was slowly advancing. "Kid, we don't want to have to take desperate measures, just come with us, or else."

Billy looked around. _Nothing I can do except run._

Mario lunged to grab Billy, but he dodged and ran. Peach motioned for the guards to give chase.

Billy ran until he was cornered. He couldn't go anywhere else, so he dug into his bag and grabbed what he intended to be a teleporting watch.

"Kid, you have nowhere else to go, you have no choice."

Billy turned on the watch, which barely ever worked right, and tapped the button.

Mario watched as Billy vanished into thin air.

"Where did he go?!" Peach said, as she finally caught up.

"We don't know… he just vanished."

"You lost him?!"

A messenger toad ran up, panting and tired.

"Bowser's attacking again! HELP!"

Peach and Mario exchanged glances and nodded at each other.

They returned to the town.

Meanwhile, Billy felt himself speeding through some sort of spacelike environment, finally landing on… tile flooring?

He looked up and saw a fluorescent light. He was in a hallway.

"Where am I…?"

Billy started cautiously walking, before bumping into a human, way taller than him.

"Well then, what do we have here? Aren't you the toad who pointed out the kingdom's biggest governmental flaw?"

"Y-yes, that would be m-me…"

"No need to be scared, you're a smart kid! Say… how would you like to follow us?" The man said, a small smile forming.

"What's in it for me?"

"The ashes of the mushroom kingdom."

Billy smirked. "The end of those good-for-nothing idiots…! Count me IN!"

-· --· ·-·· ·· ··-· --- ·-· --· --- - ·-- ···· ·- - ···- · ·-· ··· · --- ··-· -· · ···- · ·-· --· --- -· -· ·- --· ·· ···- · -·-- --- ··- ··- ·--· ·-- · ·-- · ·-· · --- -· ·-·· --- ·-·· 

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Flashback Successful  
> *Added Code  
> *stop da cap


	14. The Task At Hand

The captain sat down at the meeting table, where all of the remaining captains sat. From the fact that they took up a meeting table alone, excluding Alpha's assistant, told a lot about numbers.

"Ok, the issue on the floor: Alpha is gone. Any leads so far?"

One of the captains, a Gormott resident, raised his hand. "We have no leads. How are we supposed to get leads? What do you expect from us?"

"Yeah!" Said a battle-hardened Hocotation. "We have nothing! But we have each other. That's all we have."

The assistant silenced them. "Ok, listen. It's time to spitball ideas, bounce them off of each other."

"Like what?" Said the Gormotti captain. "Go headfirst into any Gamma base we find? That's what they expect!'

"They expect us to be clueless!" Captain, (or, for this scene, Lucifer,) replied.

"What else can we do? They evade everything we do! They're too slick for us!"

Lucifer looked around. Everyone was disagreeing like no tomorrow.

"That's what they want."

"What?"

Lucifer looked around. "They're turning us against each other. If we don't stand together, we will die, one by one. How about this, we brought in a character who was friends with one of my agents. We could use her to get a location. Maybe then, we could-"

The assistant stopped him. "Ok, wait. We can't do that, we have secured all of the bases. The only one we can find is the one we haven't even found! It's the one Alpha wrote about… but it's more hidden than anything we've ever seen, and probably bigger…"

Lucifer looked around again. "We are all brilliant captains, we can come up with something, I'm sure! If it's that much of a problem for ONE team, we're EIGHT!"

"Yeah, and we're also LOST! I'm leaving. Maybe we could get together as soon as Gamma shows their face-"

The assistant saw their comms device flickering. Someone was calling.

She turned on the comms and listened.

"Can you hear me? God, I hope you can… it exists, the megabase exists, and it's hidden very well, but I'm okay. The leader of Gamma has me locked up, but I can tell you, it's not hard when you, _ahem,_ track it down." A voice much like Alpha's sarcastic self was talking to them.

"If you didn't get the memo, I want you to track the call!"

The assistant ran and the entire room followed. She ran and hooked the comms up to the wireless tracking board. They started tracking.

"Have you found anything- and please don't say it loudly, I think there are guards out there…"

"Yes, we're tracking it right now, sir… sir?"

Alpha didn't respond. Yet. The comms flickered back on after about five minutes. "Ok, I'm back, but there's… someone here… hold on."

They leaned in and listened. "You ARE on my side, right? You're not gonna rat me out?"

A faint voice spoke.

Alpha sighed in relief. "Ok, anyway, just keep tracking, I'm-"

A loud noise played and the comms shut off.

"Sir, are you there? S-sir?"

Another voice was heard. "Ah, are these the MVPs? Cool, because I have your supposed superior."

"I think we know that!" One of the captains had the gall to say.

"Well, I have him in a tight spot. Needless to say, if you don't stop tracking right now, I will not hesitate to shoot him, okay?"

The assistant instantly pressed the button to stop tracking.

"Good. It is done then. Because of your obedience, I will delay the day I will kill him. Good for you! Now, hurry up and find your boss, so that I can see you. I'm getting antsy just thinking about when you arrive! Now, I must run along, bye bye!"

The comms were destroyed, everyone assumed. The tracking had stopped as it was almost done.

"That's it. He's going to die and then us."

Lucifer sighed and they looked around. "What do we do? It's not like we can do anything about it. All they're going to do is kill him when we arrive."

Lucifer felt a stroke. Not one with your heart, get your head out of the gutter, I'm talking about determination, it's not time for me to kill him yet! He felt a stroke of determination come on.

"I'm going to find Alpha. You're going to come with me, or I'm going alone."

"Rest in peace, Lucifer."

_\-- ·· ---- ·- · ·-··_

_At base…_

"What?! How could they?" Luigi protested.

"Yup. They gave up. That leaves the whole job up to us."

Alph looked at everyone. 3 looked miserable. Luigi was low on hopes and probably knew they couldn't win. Simon was thinking. Alph guessed about family. The captain looked sorry. They all seemed to know one thing; the scales didn't tip their way.

"But." Said the captain. "This is the multiverse we're risking if we give up. Lives would be ruined. Everyone would suffer. We HAVE to do something."

Luigi stood up. "My brother might be missing, I can't find him, but we aren't giving up just yet. If we save the multiverse and get back Alpha, it may become easier to find him. But we can't just sit here in despair."

Simon sighed. "There have been too many casualties to just say that we give up. Every time someone dies, a family has to bear that. It's better to die, knowing you tried, rather than having the guilt of leaving everyone else to die."

3 hopped to her feet. "If I saw the good of a murderer, I can look upon an entire multiverse and say there's hope somewhere. Even if it's just us, we have to try. It's now or never."

Alph looked around. "So… what's the call? The temporaries are in training, so it's just us. What's the plan?"

The captain nodded. "Then it's confirmed. We're doing it ourselves. We do it as soon as we get a plan together. Now, to the tracking room, I have an idea."

Everybody, together, came up with a plan. A foolproof plan. And it was going to work, or they would die.

··· ·--· --- ·· ·-·· · ·-· ·- ·-·· · ·-· - ---··· - ···· · -·-- -·· ·· · 

_Meanwhile…_

Mario co. (+ Meta Knight) walked through green fields.

"Wow! This place is so friendly, I can't imagine anything bad going on here!" Mario said, with a giddy tone.

"Oh, you wouldn't believe what happens here on a monthly basis."

Mario chuckled, but they all halted, as a great forest lay in front of them.

"Is this Whispy woods? Peach is lost in there?" Bowser mumbled, in awe.

"Kirby should be in there somewhere. Let's hope we can find him before-"

A loud THUD resonated from the forest and the largest tree they could see had shrunk down to its normal size.

" _What?"_ Meta Knight whispered. "Someone's gotten to Whispy before us! We must find them!"

Meta Knight took off running, same with everyone else. They ran for what seemed hours, without getting tired. Until they got tired and sat down for a second.

Toad fiddled with the watch. " _Swear I've seen this thing before…_ "

Mario leaned in. "Seen what?"

"This crest."

An abstract shape made up of lines was at the bottom of the watch, like a symbol.

"See? It looks like a cross over something."

Mario looked at the watch, turning it around some to see it properly.

"Wait… look there." He said, after turning it upside-down. "It's a cross over an M…"

They thought about it, until they heard the bushes shake near them.

Mario got into a battle stance, Toad hid behind Mario, Bowser got into a show-off battle stance, and Meta Knight unsheathed his sword.

"Who's there?!"

The bushes split in half as a round, pink organism wielding a sword and a weird green Santa hat jumped out.  
"Mario!" A familiar voice called.

Princess Peach ran past the pink being and to Mario.

"Princess! How good it is to see you again! I thought that we would have to leave you here for a second there…" Said Mario.

The princess looked at the pink being that held it's sword out. Meta Knight stepped forward. "Kirby! There you are, I was searching for you. It seems you have defeated Whispy Woods by yourself! Now that we're all together… how do we leave?"

Mario looked around and quickly noticed that they were lost.

"Ok. Let's go… Thataway." Mario pointed to his left.

They walked for a long time. Mario stopped. "Ok, maybe we should look from above. Bowser, gimme a boost!"

Bowser climbed as far as he could up a nearby tree, and grabbed Mario's hand. Bowser flung Mario upward, above the trees. The trees ended nearby.

Mario dropped and pointed to the right. "This way!"

They ran as fast as they could. They felt ten times better when they exited the forest and saw Dedede's castle.

They ran, Toad tripped a few times, Bowser tripped over unfortunate Waddle dees, and they made it to the castle, with Kirby and Peach.

Dedede seemed happy to see Kirby. "Hey, kiddo, how have ya been? Have you tried that new ramen recipe? It's so GOOD!"

Kirby seemed to communicate with Dedede just fine, though nobody understood him.

Mario looked around at everyone. "We could go home now! But… the watch says we need to wait. It's okay, though. Maybe we could have a vacation while we wait?"

Toad and Bowser were already gone. "Oh, well."

_·- -- --- -· --· ··- ··· -·· ·-· ·· ·--·_

_Meanwhile…_

Alpha looked across the room. A beaten up, emerald Inkling sat on the other side.

"Hey, hey buddy, I need your help."

Travis looked up at Alpha. He was pleading, begging to get out.

"I can't help you. These guys are too strong. I'd be lucky to even have a calm death here."

"Yes, you want to die, but, at least, help ME."

Travis couldn't help but smile. "This is awkward. I expected you to say something like, we can both escape together… but I know I won't leave. The only thing I wish next is… never mind."

Alpha looked around. "How did you get here?"

"...a temporary. I was a temporary. But. I was also a part of Gamma. I swore that it was an accident, but no one believed me. But I think vengeance is the last thing on my mind right now."

"And you're telling me this… why?"

"Because I doubt I'd make it out of here."

"I knew that- why did I even bother?"

Travis got up.

"I'm going to help you escape out of pity. Once you escape this cell, run. Run as fast as you can, because this place? It's going DOWN. We should plan this out though. You are going to get out of here… "

Alpha looked up. "Why have you decided to help me? Hm? I thought that we were supposed to be bitter enemies…"

"Not you and me. I'm going to kill everyone in here, and I wish upon you that you get out. You seem like a nice guy."

Alpha smiled. "You would make a great MVP, putting others before yourself… but I respect your decision. Now, how are we gonna do this?"

They sat down and tried forming some sort of plan.

_···-- ·· ··· - ···· · ··- ·-·· - ·· -- ·- - · ·-- ·- ·· ··-· ··- ··· ·- -·-- - ···· ·- - - · -· - ·· -- · ··· ··-· ·- ··· -_

_Travis's house, 1 hour later…_

3 searched through Travis's drawers, searching for some sort of lead. It seemed as if she weren't getting anywhere, until she found something. A key. It looked like it was old. Rusted over and all that.

She looked up and down for an unlocked door to use the key on, but found nothing. And then she looked through the drawer again and found a note.

"To old house- do NOT lose."

3 instantly looked to the door, as he had left his car and keys at the house and she knew the address of the old house. The house she searched for was… decrepit, old, not much to it. That is, until she opened the door.

It smelled like some sort of herbs inside. The air conditioning was on. Someone lived here, but who?

3 looked around. The walls were cleaned. Painted, but not long ago, from the fact that she touched the wall and had to scrub the paint off of her hands. 3 looked through what she could get her hands on and took it with her.

The next few minutes was 3 searching for something to prove her friend innocent or finding a way into the Gamma base. Like most of the captains had said, it was greatly impossible.

3 turned and tried unlocking things. The key didn't unlock anything, but the basement. The basement had dust webs holding the trapdoor shut, telling someone who'd opened it that it hadn't been opened in forever…

3 switched on her phone light and started walking. The basement smelled horrid. A reeking, rotten fish smell blew up the entire basement. The basement was relatively empty, aside from the 5, horribly mutilated corpses on the floor.

3 looked around for something, anything. She found a tape. A tape, something from Travis, because the creatures inhabiting Earth now didn't have tapes.

3 took it, the tape. Perhaps it would help her in the long run?

Right as 3 went to leave, she locked eyes with another inkling. She was a magenta sort of color and was dark-skinned. She was shorter than 3 (by quite a bit, too.)

3 tried to come up with a lie, but the character in the foyer spoke first.

"Who are you? How did you get in here? I thought I was the only one with the key."

3 pulled out the key from Travis's house. "You mean this one? I found it at-" 3 remembered. She wasn't supposed to tell the exact truth, that would not end well. "-a friend's house."

"Who owns that house, I need to know, NOW."

3 found herself breaking her own rule and telling the truth anyway.

"His name is Travis, if that helps-"

The character, of whom we don't know the name or reasoning behind yet, smiled awkwardly.

"Did… did Travis have a sort of… emerald hue?"

Travis was, in fact, emerald. Unfortunately, 3 still found herself telling the truth.

"Y...yes…?"

" _Where is he now?"_

"I don't know, that's what I was trying to find out, but I found this key first."

The character just stared, coldly. "I've heard enough. You need to leave. I'll find you later, just take your bearings and leave."

3 stopped herself from talking any longer and left. The thought nagged at her, though... who was that?

·· -· - --- - ···· · ·-·· ·· --· ···· - ·-- ·· - ···· ·- -· ·- ··· - -·-- -- ·- ·--- · ··· - -·-- ; -·--·- 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *oof  
> *Added Code


	15. We Can't Be Together Anymore

The plan was done. They had watched the tape. The tape was just the Gamma starter tape, Travis disposed of it in the basement of which only he had the key to. They were done with the plan and now knew the place to go… and the time they would be in it is split up into the confinements of 3 chapters. 15, 16 and 17. As a wise man once said, "We're in the endgame now…"

The ship approached the megabase that everyone feared.

"Look at that thing… I wonder how much phone coverage it has.." Luigi bothered to say.

The captain put the ship into stall mode and unbuckled. "Ok, folks. We're going in through the dock, through the pods. Alph, you will stay here and watch us through the cameras, as well as trying to figure out what they're trying to pull. 3. You are going to rig the reactor. Take the subspace bomb, rig it as we showed you, and blow this place to the multiversal sky. Simon. You are going to hunt for Omega, wherever he may be. No way he's not pulling a trick, so just find out what he's playing at and report to the rendezvous point. Luigi, cut off their comms system so that ours is the only one remaining, and then report to the rendezvous point, and I… I will find Alpha. You all know your plans, now go."

They shot off the pods and carefully landed them in the dock.

They split up from there.

·- ·-· · -·-- --- ··- ·-· · ·- -·· -·-- ··--·· 

3 carefully traversed the halls, following the instructions from the maps of which they had on the walls.

After some hunting, 3 found the reactor room. It was a fluorescent cyan color. The walls had lines lighting it up with the same cyan lights. It was very pretty, but there was something that took the beauty and awe away from it. And its name began with a T.

The emerald inkling stood right there, smack dab in 3's way. They were 10 feet away from each other.

He pointed his knife forward. "I knew you'd be here. Right here and I was ready for ya. You want to end this, so do I. We have a common enemy now."

3 stepped forward. "Then join our cause. We don't have to fight-"

Travis laughed. "You think that, but you know it's inevitable. We have a common enemy. Each other. This battle doesn't even matter, technically. This place is still being blown to pieces anyway."

"Why can't we just lay down our weapons and be friends again? Why can't you let go and help me?"

"Because, even though we were truly friends before, no faking, genuine friendship, I choose this time to stand here, right in your way. Because of a simple mistake."

"If you hadn't gone and betrayed me, we would've been more than that. But look where we are now, best of friends to bitter enemies."

Travis had a scowl. 3 was readying herself to fight. It was inevitable. She knew he wouldn't go down without a brawl. They exchanged glances before they both charged.

15 minutes seemed like hours, but when they passed, Travis's eyes went wide as pieces of metal flew across the floor.

The remains of Travis's knife lay on the floor.

He remained motionless for about two seconds. Travis felt a power surge through him as he summoned all the PSI he could get to help fight.

"This is truly a winding battle," Travis mumbled, while he fiddled with fire at his fingertips. "But methinks this is over now."

3 regained composure and readied herself. They continued.

Alph called 3 over and over again. It had been a little bit since the action had stopped now. "3, can you hear me?"

3 sighed and turned on her comms. "I… I'm okay."

Travis lay on his back, a small line of emerald going from his mouth.

"H...how? How did you do that?" He groaned, weakly. "I wanted so badly your death. But fate wants me elsewhere…"

3 bent down to meet Travis eye-to-eye. "It's not over. I can still help you escape, none of us have to die here."

"How can you forgive a killer? I have done more than my own superior, under my own volition."

3 sat the bomb on the floor and started the timer. 4 hours. Travis watched, silent as can be.

3 looked to Travis. "Come on. Come with me, we can escape together."

"Why? So someone else can come home and ruin my life? Imagine it. I return home. Whatever is left of Gamma wants me here, dead or alive, MVPs want my head on a stick, what's next? My long lost sister shows up and tries to kill me?"

3 crouched down to be on eye level again. "I can't stay here any longer, so…"

Travis's eyes went wide as 3 caught him in a hug. It felt… warm. And friendly. But it didn't change his mind.

3 ran away, leaving Travis to listen to his thoughts and the steady beep of the bomb as it counted down. Travis looked at the ceiling and conjured the best memory he could remember, during his literal final hours.

·-··-· -- -·-- ·-·· --- -· --· ·-·· --- ··· - ··· ·· ··· - · ·-· - ·-· ·· · ··· - --- -·- ·· ·-·· ·-·· -- · ··--·· ·-··-· ··-· --- ·-· · ··· ···· ·- -·· --- ·-- ·· -· --· ·- - ·· - ·----· ··· -··· · ··· - ...

_In the recesses of Travis's mind, a memory of 15 years ago…_

The emerald boy slowly trotted home from school. Felt like hours, but that was the way he liked it. Slow and winding. Nothing good would await him at home, but turning himself on auto-pilot and walking slowly whilst thinking to himself made him feel better and braced his mind for the sudden strains on it.

That day, he was walking, looking at the ground. The ground was a nice thing to stare at, but the view was obstructed by a pair of legs.

Travis looked up. A girl, orange, probably naturally, stood in front of him. She wasn't facing him, she was facing the street to his right. She wore a grey hoodie and jeans.

Travis frowned and bothered to ask one simple question. "What are you doing?"

The girl looked down at him. She was mighty tall, to 13-year old Travis.

"Waiting." She replied.

"For what?"

"Someone to arrive. What are YOU doing?"

Travis pondered telling the truth. He wasn't being abused or anything, so he told the truth. A bit too much of the truth. "Walking home. Home to a bunch of no-good idiots."

The girl awkwardly laughed. "Well… that's… uhh… nice…?"

"Not exactly."

"Tough life, huh?"

Travis slowly nodded.

"I bet you have it better than me."

The girl awkwardly laughed again. "Well… not exactly. You need to lighten up, though. How old are you?"

"9. But everyone who's actually nice to me says that I act like I'm way older."

The girl laughed, but quickly stopped. "You do, from what I've heard… Say… what's your name?"

Travis thought about telling a lie or the truth again. "My mother says I shouldn't give my name to strangers…" The girl gave a shrug. Travis smugly continued. "But she's always wrong and gives garbage advice. I'm Travis." Travis stuck out his hand.

The girl shook it. Her hand felt hard. Like she had rocks for a hand.

"Kid, I haven't seen a 9 year old with such… willingness. But, I'd guess you'll grow out of it, or it'll get worse… My name is Aria."

Travis looked around Aria. "I have to go home now. But it was nice meeting you and we probably won't see each other for another 3 to 5 years."

Aria tilted her head in confusion, but shrugged it off. "You seem like a cool kid… you come from the school from just up the street?"

Travis solemnly nodded.

"Ok… see ya later, kid."

Travis jogged off, but Aria watched him leave. After he left, Aria turned back to the road and cracked a smile.

_1 day later…_

Travis turned and saw his least favorite group of stereotypical bullies coming.

They looked like they wanted to do something horrible, but then they stopped. Travis felt an awkward air behind him and turned just barely. Aria stood behind him, just barely smiling.

The bullies laughed a little. "Is she your little hero?"

Aria glared creepily.

They laughed louder. "Aw, is that supposed to be scaring me-"

Aria slowly approached them, revealing that she was actually looking down on them. Literally, they were shaking in their shoes at the fact that she was very tall and about to pound them into the concrete.

"Laugh all you want, but if you lay as much as a single molecule of you on him and I will beat you to a pulp."

They all ran, except for the leader. "Am I supposed to be scared?" He said, shakily.

"Yes, if you know what's good for you and would like to remain in the mortal realm."

He slowly ran off. Travis muttered a very quiet "thanks."

"The sad thing is, they didn't resist. If they had resisted any longer, I'd have busted some tail."

Travis shrugged and sat down. "Won't they just come back?"

"Yeah, but they'll be hesitant. Maybe then you could try one of your… word tricks."

Travis shrugged and continued on with his day.

As the week progressed, Aria appeared more and more. Like a stalker, but good. Travis liked it, to be honest.

··· - ·- ·-·· -·- · ·-· ·-·· --- ·-·· 

_Present…_

Travis snapped out of his memory moment to smile. _Maybe I was an evil being. But I know I could never forgive you._

Travis stood up. His legs trembled and he felt like he was going to collapse again. He had really taken a beating. Badly. Travis slowly limped to the door that 3 had pried open. As if he weren't beaten up, Travis smiled creepily and ran. Ran as fast as he could.

Words barely escaped his mouth as he spoke them, "I'm not done with you yet."

_·- -· -·· ···· · ·· ··· -· ·----· - ._

_Meanwhile..._

A low rumble shook the facility. 3 lost her footing for a second, but was okay. Luigi and Simon should have been done with their tasks by then. It was making 3 scared. The idea that a single one failing caused full loss of the war shook all of them, but 3 the most.

The rendezvous point was the ventilation room, the one with no security and no guards outside. No guns were to be fired because Gamma feared that a single bullet would kill all of them. That's why the captain chose that spot.

3 sat down, once aware that no one was in the room and had followed her.

All outside noises were drowned out by the hum of the vent shafts working. 3 leaned against the wall and sighed. "I need to rest…"

3 peeked an eye open about an hour later and saw Luigi slowly tread inside.

"Oh, thank god." he muttered. "I really hoped that you were alive. My wishes are granted."

Luigi sat himself right beside 3.

"You look troubled. Distressed. What happened?"

"My past friend had to die for us to win this battle."

Luigi sighed. "Once we win, the casualties should shrink. But you should sleep for now. They don't check this room unless absolutely necessary and the pods are still hidden."

"Why? He's just going to appear in my nightmares as the one I couldn't help."

"You're right. He is. But the past is the past, and you can't change it. You can only work through. That's why Alpha made the MVP corp. To get the people stuck in the past of dreariness and pain to snap out of it and see the new world. But that's his way of working around the past and to the future. Now, get some rest. Simon and the captain should be back soon."

3 nodded off before Luigi fell asleep. Luigi, who just sat there, nervous, fell asleep shortly after.

_-··· ·· ·-·· ·-·· -·-- ·--- · ·- -· ·· ··· -· --- - -- -·-- ·-·· --- ···- · ·-· ···· · ·----· ··· ·--- ··- ··· - ·- -- ·- -· ·· ·- -·-· ·- ·-·· - --- ·- -·· ·-- ·· - ···· ·- -·· · ··· ·· ·-· · - --- -·- ·· ·-·· ·-··_

_Meanwhile, on the ship…_

Alph sighed. "Glad that's over. Now, time to check in on-"

"Oh, if it isn't fruit fly… what a surprise!"

Alph grabbed his taser and whirled around, to lock eyes with Billy. " _Oh no."_

"Come on, you can't have a private signal near ME! I am the hacking master! Ya done goofed kid."

Alph grabbed the nearest weapon. A laser rifle. Memories, am I right?

Billy undid the chrome arms. "Boy, I'm probably younger than you, but that does NOT save your rump from the whooping it's about to get. Any last words, before you DIE?"

Alph realized that the gun was still set to random. After saying a prayer in his head and Billy impatiently waiting for Alph to spew his last words, Alph looked Billy dead in the eye. "No one knows when their life is in danger."

As quick as a flash, Alph pointed up and shot out the ship lights, causing them to be immersed in darkness.

Billy screamed in anger, before screaming in pain, because Alph had shocked him.

" _ARGH! You little brat! How DARE you?!_ "

Billy swung the metal arm backwards, right into an unsuspecting Alph, who had on night vision.

Alph flew into the wall, but got back up. "Nice try."

Billy felt a shock in his back, screaming as the arms malfunctioned and started flailing.

Alph looked at the laser rifle. The arms made Billy dangerous… so he would get rid of them.

Billy probably saw it coming, the moment Alph shot the chrome backpack, destroying the frame controlling everything.

Billy dropped the backpack as Alph turned on the back lights. "You…. you destroyed it. You win. But. Your friends will die in there. Omega has something cruel up his sleeve and you'd be better off dead."

Alph put cuffs on Billy and sat him down. "What's this trick?"

"Not like I'd tell you. _You brat._ "

Alph released a small anger sigh and went back to the comms and camera systems.

Something really wasn't right. Alph planned to tell everyone. But something stopped him. Some nagging feeling that someone was waiting to hear what he had to say.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *love this chapter duuuude  
> *Added code


	16. It's The Final Countdown

Simon arrived an hour later, panting and tired.

"I know where Omega is. And we're basically screwed. Because it's nothing we've ever seen before."

3 and Luigi, who were finding their way to being entirely awake and listening, stood up and groggily watched.

"Omega, he's… remember the lady from the last base? She was using magic, but this is like no magic I've seen before. Like he's making himself-"

The captain ran in, a second later.

"Guys! I have good news and bad news! I'll tell ya the good ones first! I found Alpha!" They looked around and saw a loss of Alpha in the room. "But then there's the bad news. You might want to get into a battle formation, because I got spotted-"

The door flew out of its hinges, to reveal Amber. Her eyes were bloodshot, she was panting and tired as well, also having unsheathed a katana. Her eyes instantly looked at Simon. That seemed to peeve her more.

"There you are! You and I have unfinished business to attend, Mr. Sword!"

Simon drew his weapon, as well as everyone else, but he stopped them.

"You guys run. She wants me, not you."

The others ran away, but Luigi looked at Simon. A tear nearly formed as he quietly said, "thank you."

Luigi ran off, right as Simon and Amber started fighting.

While running down the halls, 3 heard an extra pair of feet running behind them. She turned to get tackled by the emerald man again.

" _DIDJA REALLY THINK YOU'D BE RID OF ME?!"_

"Go, I got this!" 3 called.

The others ran away, as 3 and Travis fought.

Luigi turned and saw it. Himself. Mr. L stood across the corridor.

Luigi looked behind Mr. L. He was in front of a portal. Luigi took his chances and ran away with the captain. Two stood more of a chance than one of them.

_·- ·-· · -·-- --- ··- ··· · ·-· ·· --- ··- ··· ·-·· -·-- -·- ·· -·· -·· ·· -· --· -- · - ···· ·· ··· ·· ··· - ···· · · -· -·· !_

_Meanwhile, wherever Mr. L is…_

Mr. L laughed a bit and went inside of the portal. He emerged in the mushroom kingdom, but. But. A poof of smoke and light and there they stood. Mario, Peach, Bowser, and Toad.

"Ah! Welcome home, Master Mar-" Toadsworth saw Mr. L and shut up. "Aah! M-mister L! Your highness, we have some… visitors."

Mario turned and saw Mr. L.

"You're…"

Mr. L smiled. "Yes. I am the Luigi clone who betrayed you. Now, tell me. Would you want Luigi to find you in pieces?"

Mario got into a battle stance. "What have you done to my kingdom?!"

Peach stood beside Mario. "What has he done to OUR kingdom?!"

Toad snatched a spear from a nearby guard and held it forward. "Who do you think you are, impeding on our kingdom?!"

Bowser felt the flames rise at the bottom of his throat. "We've been through an alien planet and lived off of fruit, there's no way in history you're going to beat us."

Mr. L summoned lightning at his fingers, but then called it off. "No… guards, would you be so kind as to escort Mario?"

"W-where s-sir?"

"Oh, you know, _out of this mortal coil and into hell._ "

The guards slowly shook their heads. "No. We won't do that! You're gonna kill us WITH Mario! You hear that? We're going to die WITH Mario!"

Mario glanced over. " _Maybe not DIE, but that's still nice too._ "

They looked to Mr. L. He was about to strike. They all charged. This was it for Mario. The uncertain end.

They tussled and fought for the longest time, but they couldn't keep up. Not until the guards came in and fought too. Mr. L still had a small upper-hand, but that hand was destroyed when Mario blasted him away with a fire blast. Mr. L collapsed, a second later.

They thought he was dead, until he jumped up and became filled with the lightning power. He and Mario flew to the top of the castle. Mario jumped and shot fire, but mostly hit with the fire attacks. After some LONG tussling, Mario saw Mr. L short-circuiting.

"M-Mario… you… y-you… will never… be... " He sickly coughed. "M...V...P…"

Mr. L blew up. Literally, he exploded into an electric pile of ash.

Mario looked up. A crack, a hole in the sky, something revealing the fabrics of time in physical form had opened.

A group of Gamma thugs fell out and started attacking, but Mario and co. held them off. After defeating the first wave, Mario looked up into the sky and sighed.

"Let Luigi be okay, please."

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_Meanwhile..._

Luigi and the captain ran through the halls until they stopped and looked up. Like a coliseum, there were seats and a middle. Where they stood.

Omega, unsuited, just normal, stood in the middle.

"You made it. I'm surprised my rowdy rusher of a daughter, the emerald insanity, and envious greenie hadn't killed you yet."

The captain scoffed. "Just show us your master plan and get on with it."

"Ok." Omega slowly cackled. "Lower the suit."

A purple bulky suit, a lot bigger and purple, the lines in it were illuminated with green lights and it looked some kinda bulky.

"This is Omega-sized beauty. My new suit. Auto-sizes anything that steps in. Like so."

Omega stepped in and the strips of metal holding back the mechanical parts on the inside fit to his stature and size as he did so. The suit closed up and he was now in full control. He laughed.

"Mr. Billy may not have been done, but it looks and feels mighty fine to me. And this is where you die. The. End."

"WAIT!" Called Simon, who had ran in.

"If you're going to fight us, fight it a fair battle! That means no one left behind!"

3 walked in as well. "We'll see who dies first, buddy!"

A tied up Alpha cheered from the crowd.

Omega punched his fist and smiled, under the suit. "If you wanna die together, so be it. Once this is all over, I get to watch my battalion destroy the universe, one by one. And you'll have to watch too. But enough talking, let's get this over with."

They all went to charge, but stopped as Omega had spoken. He repeated the unheard line.

"Are you ready?"

They all nodded.

"Then…" He sighed. "Martha, forgive me. But what needs to be done is getting done today, one way or another."

They all began with a slow trot. It went to a jog. Then a run. And, finally, a full-on sprint. They wanted this over. But fate didn't want that. Not in that moment.

The crowd went mad when 3 hit the floor last. They had lost. Omega stood, victorious.

"You lose." He said.

Omega turned and the hands of the suit lit up, as he did something.

The captain, weak as he was, looked up.

"What are you going to do?"

Omega turned back around.

"Creating a fissure. A hole that opens in every part of the multiverse. The whole multiverse will see it, and they, too, will kneel or die. Like you. Just don't fall in, you don't have proper equipment and that'll suck for anyone with the gall to-"

Omega was interrupted by an angry Travis, who was still alive, for whatever reason.

"SHUT. UP."

Omega turned. "What is that?"

"I said, SHUT UP. You talk too much, too little action! Besides, you're taking away MY universe as well? I can't do anything I wanted anymore, because of you!"

Travis pulled out a hunting knife. "I've lost two battles today. If I'm gonna lose, _kill me._ Because I'm not going down without a fight."

Travis pounced. Omega took a second to shake off the flexible animal that was attacking him. But 3 and everyone else as well had seen what happened. Travis kicked one of the plates on Omega's back and he screamed. Something was going on inside of the suit when Travis had done that, but Omega didn't stand for it. Travis had a giant hand grasp him and chuck him right into the fissure.

Omega tried to catch his breath, but he had no time to breathe, as the agents were already standing up. Or, trying to. 3 was wobbly for a second.

Omega looked at everyone.

"You are willing to die for the universe. Willing to die for people that aren't even your worth. That? That is called stupidity."

Alpha, or Michael, whichever, stood up in the crowd. "No! That's called selflessness and sympathy! Something a pig like you wouldn't understand!"

Omega snorted. "And what do you know about sympathy?"

"I know that pigs can't feel it!"

Omega felt a sting of pain, but he quickly regained composure as Luigi shot one of the plates on his back.

"AH! You swine, I'll kill anyone who impedes on my dreams, including YOU, Michael!"

Omega swung at Luigi, missing several times. While this was happening, 3 was preparing to jump. She did, and punched the plates on the back again.

Omega twitched suddenly, jerking enough to knock 3 off.

The captain swung right as Omega turned, getting a hammerful on the backplates.

The suit jerked and had repeated spasms, and Simon jumped, swung, and jerked his whole sword into the backplates. Omega screamed and punched Simon away. He screamed, but it stopped abruptly, and he fell to the floor. Blood pooled out of the holes in the suit and it twitched and he still released pained grunts as he reached his hands to grab the nearest agent or thing to kill.

Michael bent over near Omega.

"Forgive me, father. But what needs to be done is getting done."

Alpha jerked his foot onto the back plates. A horrid crunch sound came from the inside as Omega screamed one last pained scream. Moments later, an MVP battalion arrived. They locked up what they could find. What they could find being ALL (or most)OF GAMMA, Amber, Billy, and the deceased Omega. Travis was floating around in the fissure. And that was when it hit them. That place was gonna blow. They had to let Alpha shut the fissure. He took needless time stalling.

While on the getaway ship, Alpha sat down near the team.

"Listen… what you saw, you had no role in. You were no part of that, because that was between me and him exclusively. But… as a reward for helping me through it… you get a break. Paid through, of course. You guys get a break, for your hard work and because renovations are being done so you can go home, until further notice."

The captain and Luigi had sustained the most damage.

3 and Simon weren't off the hook either, Simon had jacked up his leg pretty bad 3 had scratches and bruises from Travis and a few more fractures from Omega.

Alpha took the time to drop each of them off at their homes. One by one, they returned home. Since it was uninhabited by its owner, 3 was given Travis's house. No one knew how Alpha got the thing under her name, but he did.

Luigi was dropped off first. When he went into the kingdom, the toads all greeted him with happiness and parading.

"Hey guys, Luigi is back!"

Luigi turned and Mario was sitting beside him.

"Welcome home, Luigi. The MVP has returned." Mario winked on the sly. It was very sly. Luigi masked his surprise by laughing.

The toads had been cleaning up after Mr. L and Mario's fight, which wrecked some things. Even Bowser was participating. It seems as if Luigi's mistake brought the kingdoms together, temporarily.

Simon limped home, given a cane for his leg injury, to his log house out in the country. He opened the door and smiled. _The smell of firewood never gets old…_

_·· ··· - ···· ·· ··· - ···· · ·-·· ·- ··· - -- --- ·-· ··· · -- · ··· ··· ·- --· · ··--··_

The first thing he did when Simon returned was sit down and take a well-earned nap. Pulling off the final blow was draining, after all. After the nap was over, Simon visited family on the other side of the world, became friends with the mayor of New Donk City, became the first to (accidentally) travel to the FE universe. He schooled all of the sword fighters before he was dragged home. But he enjoyed himself.

3 went and personalized Travis's house. She cleaned the nasty stains from the basement, continued to train with the punching bag, made new friends, competed in social events and failed miserably. But none of the people she met didn't feel anything of a friend as Travis. Maybe because he was different? That sus character from chapter… 14? Yeah, she appeared a bit more out in public. What was even her deal? It seems like Travis had been using her, but 3 was "smarter," as she claimed, and wouldn't fall for the same trick twice. As Luigi (quietly) said, "Yeah, right."

Lucifer/the captain went home to requiem with some friends, spend more time with his family, get into politics (for whatever reason THAT was,) buy a SWEET RIDE, become friends with Mario and re-friend Luigi, still be in contact with Alpha, even off the job, teach his kids, one girl and one boy, how to play golf, and "accidentally" have another child and spend tons of time and money with it. The captain tied loose ends and spent more time with loved ones.

Alpha received the same mug from literally EVERY SINGLE AGENT IN THE CORPORATION on his birthday. He loved it more than anything. And he wasn't lying. He tied loose ends with Amber, she now followed his dream and was released and reformed. They both mourned the loss of their father but quickly got over it and became the best of siblings and friends. Amber finally got her brother back. And Alpha fixed the family issues.

Billy learned several new tricks about engineering and science, but never reformed. He'd nicened himself up quite a bit, but the rest of the prisoners made it mandatory to never get on his bad side. One did, and suffered acid burns for a long time. Billy got himself a name and was well underway to reformation. Like a champ. The champ he knew he was. But it was hard to tell whether or not him becoming good was real. Because he was always smiling. Even when happy little accidents happened.

Travis… the emerald man, the insane being we knew for so long, he remained, floating in blackness, atoning for his deeds in the pure nothing. The atmosphere was like that of something we have seen before, where he's trapped but not able to die. Stuck in his own hell, to rethink everything he'd ever done. Sounds horrible.

Mario and Luigi reached a pact to where Mario wouldn't rat Luigi out if he took Mario on a tour through the base. So they did just that and the secret was safe. Mario and Luigi, in the span of one year, saved the princess(5 times), saved the planet(1 time), went golfing and fishing and played soccer and basketball and went karting and skiing and to the movies and to the fridge for a glass of milk. All in the confinement of a singular year.

Alph went home to a welcome party! Everyone celebrated the (not literal) prodigal son's return. He made his grandpa proud when he shared all the stories he had. Alph even gave out taser lessons! _Let's just say that they weren't as successful as you'd think._ Brittany finished training and decided to become an official agent. Alph was supremely happy. He spent time with his whole family, all of them.

Captain Toad did NOT become an agent. He had… other callings. At least, that's HIS reason. Luigi had to get over this. Sadly, Captain Toad was wiped of any memory of the MVPs and sent home.

Omega was not buried. He was blown to bits with his dream and now lay in heaven with Martha. Even the worst villain still gets a good ending. He got a memorial in Alpha's room. Nobody bothers to ask who it is, or why it's there. But his father now rests in peace. His memorial stated 7 words. "A good father and an honorable fighter."

But, one day, they snapped back into reality. And it was the best thing they had heard since they got their jobs.

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_1 year later…_

3 awoke to the distress beacon going off.

A rush of adrenaline soared through her body as she jumped out of bed and ran over to the comm system.

Indeed, someone was calling. Alpha had left a message.

He spoke like he was happy. And that was because he genuinely was happy to see them back.

As he said, "The world may not be pretty. Nothing is truly pretty. Especially not in this line of work. Nothing is pretty because everything is seen differently in the eyes of everyone. That's where we come in. If your view on the world is sick and twisted, then it's about time you got locked in a cell and talked it through with us. If you're like me, or anything like me, you would be able to likely guess why I made this corporation. Not like I'm going to tell you, though, I came to tell you that the renovations and shrapnel checks are done and you can resume your job as soon as possible. Now, I suppose certain ones would rather not go right away. That is fine. Just know this: I meet and hire and even fire MVPs daily. They come to me for help, advice, etc. You guys? Why, I can forget about any other agent until I see them again, but you guys did something another team had never done. You surprised me. No doubt your names are going in the MVPs book of honor- Now, since your friends are probably waiting for you, run along. Lucifer, Luigi, Alph, 3 and Simon, welcome back."

3 laughed and ran to the closet. Her suit was still there, collecting dust.

Simon picked some lint off the hood and smirked.

Luigi donned the suit and opened the portal.

And there it is. Gamma's gone, but things out there still want to seek and destroy. But Gamma's mark on the universe is still being cleaned up. Most of the Gamma members were sent to their homes as new people. And that marks the end of their tale... _for now..._

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *in the beta edition, 3 and Travis were gonna have a sexy time but I cut that to make him a killer  
> *for the last time, added code.

**Author's Note:**

> heyheyhey wassup it's me the jumbled text man! Hi! Welcome! How do you like the first chapter so far? Good, isn't it? If it sucks to you, go on and leave here to find something else, because I D O N' T G I V E A C R A P. Anyhow, see you around when chapter 2 drops!  
> [note that i wrote this a while ago so it may suck until, like, chapter 5]


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